Cinema Canada (Apr 1979)

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. Crack at the Title Shot
_ . Memos to the Producer: Agenc
| erview with George Bloomfield

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April 1979
Number 54

Editor/Publisher: Jean-Pierre and Connie
Tadros. Assistants to the Editor: Del
Mehes (Toronto) and Charlotte Hussey
(Montreal). Subscription Manager: Syl-
vie Galipeault. Art Direction: Richard
Coté. Advertising sales representative:
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tha Jones (Edmonton), Gray Kyles (Van-
couver) and Lee Rolfe (Winnipeg).

Cinema Canada, founded by the Canadian
Society of Cinematographers, is published
by the Cinema Canada Magazine Founda-
tion. President: Jean-Pierre Tadros, Vice-
President: George Csaba Koller, Secretary-
Treasurer: Connie Tadros, Directors: Agi
Ibranyi-Kiss and George Campbell Miller.
Editorial information: All manuscripts, draw-
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accompanied by a self-addressed stamped
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azine are those of the author and not ne-
cessarily those of the editors. Cinema Canada
is indexed in the Film Literature Index
(Albany), the Canadian Periodical Index
(Ottawa) and the International Index to Film

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CONTENTS

Cover: ane
a Richard Gabourie aims at the big time as he

co-stars with Tony Curtis in Title Shot. Win-
ner of an Etrog last year for Best Canadian
Actor, Gabourie is executive producer of the
film

4 Introducing

4 André Collette
6 Maruska Stankova

9 Spotlight: George Bloomfield

Larry Moore 14. A Shot at the Big Time

Anthony Hall 18 Julius Kohanyi: A Portrait

Leila Basen 23 Memo to the Producer

Michael Asti-Rose 27 The Loneliness of the Short Subject

Filmmaker: Bruce Pittman

31 Tech News by Rodger J. Ross
Film Post Production on Video 3

33 Bookshelf by George L. George

34 Bookreviews
A Guide to Film and TV Courses
in Canada 1978-79 by Charlotte Hussey

34 Movies as Social Criticism by I.C. Jarvie

38 Short Film Reviews

Cinema Canada/3

INTRODUCING...
andré collette

a born
entrepreneur

He used to operate bowling alleys.

Now he operates a film laboratory.

André Collette is president and gen-
eral manager of Bellevue Pathé, Mont-
réal.

Collette’s reputation has grown over
the years. When he gives his word, it has
credibility and respect in the industry.

When he was young, Collette wanted
to be a salesman. First he worked as a
hardware clerk, then he graduated to
the paint business, then to Brunswick of
Canada as national sales manager in the
bowling and billiard business.

Finally; as assistant director of Ex-
po’s “Man and the City” pavilion, he
met Harold Greenberg, current pres-
ident and chairman of the board of
Astral-Bellevue Pathé.

After Expo, Collette became a sales
representative on the road for Green-
berg. He was selling services for a small
company called Ciné Lab. The motion
picture/photo finishing laboratory only
had one reversal processor and a couple
of printers. But expansion was planned.
Greenberg had already bought out the
Humphrey-Pathé Laboratory in Toron-
to. In 1968 he also purchased the Trans-
Canada Laboratory of Vancouver.

Collette’s job was to approach
would-be customers.

“TI told them that I didn’t know any-
thing about the film business, but that
we had fantastic services. My frankness
with the people in the industry must
have made them accept me.”

Instead of opening a big Montreal
lab as planned, Greenberg bought out
A.S.I. (Associated Screen Industries)
from Du Art in New York. Collette be-
came the representative for A.S.I. By
1971 he was general manager.

“To learn the business internally I
got involved with different film projects
and followed them through the lab. I
discovered problems with films and
filmmakers which gave me insight into
the technical problems of running the
business, but I avoided becoming over-
technical.

4/Cinema Canada

photo: Lois Siegel _

André Collette doing business on the phone

**All I had to do was know a little bit
more than the filmmakers because most
filmmakers don’t know too much about
the technical aspects of the laboratory.
And most film producers are so in-
volved with their own problems that
they don’t really want to know about
the technical problems. They don’t need
complications. All they want to know is
when they are going to get their film.

“It would help if they knew more,
but if they did know more, they would
have to accept the problems the labora-
tory has, so subconsciously they don’t
want to know.”

Collette set up a system of service
people who were there to provide in-
formation and to work with producers
and filmmakers to make them aware of
the laboratory’s problems.

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“A filmmaker is basically a creative
person rather than a technical person.
Our service and sales department pro-
vided a link between the customer and
our production people who actually did
the physical work. We based our sales
on quality and service and especially
consistency of quality because all labs
in the world have technical problems.

“Part of our marketing approach has
been to help the young filmmaker. We
are open-minded enough to realize that
today’s beginning filmmaker is tomor-
row’s customer. To assist them, we have
deferred payments, we've advanced
money even to those who have never
paid us, we haven’t pushed for pay-
ments and we’ve invested our money in
the feature film business, sometimes to
our great regret and sometimes to our
advantage.”

In 1977, Collette became president
of Bellevue Pathé Laboratory which em-
ploys about 75 people.

‘We are twice as big as any labora-
tory in the city, but we don’t worry
about other labs, we worry about our-
selves. A laboratory is always expand-
ing. Each year, there is $100,000-

6/Cinema Canada

INTRODUCING...

$200,000 for either new equipment or
modernization of old equipment which
is capital investment.

“In the film business, we have to
train people ourselves. Each department
has its own training program because it’s
hard to take a person off the street to
become, for example, a timer. A timer
has to know about the other technical
processes in the laboratory. It takes 2-3
years. He is concerned with standards of
colors and what happens to emulsion
when it is being treated and what hap-
pens to the red and blue when you take
the green out. It takes one or two years
to become a proficient printer and 6
months to a year to be a processor.”

Collette finds young people to be
very different than his older employees.

“It’s not easy to motivate them or to
keep them. You have to give them in-
teresting jobs, pride in their work, and
financial rewards. But perhaps that will
change when they discover that they
have to get involved to accomplish
something.”

“The problem with film students is
that everyone wants to be a director.
Everyone wants to be creative. No one
wants to be a technician.”

“If someone wants to stay in the in-
dustry, he will have to diversify himself.
How many good directors can we have?
A director needs certain talents. One has
to realize that he can be something
else.”

Collette regards himself as a born en-
trepreneur.

“IT learned to wheel and deal in my
young days. I do enjoy movies, but un-
fortunately I don’t have time to see
them. I’m like the shoemaker who has
holes in his shoes. I go to the odd pre-
miére. I mainly look at films when there
is a problem with them. I don’t see
10,000 feet of film in a year. I see a roll
here or there but rarely an entire
feature. When I go to movies, I pay like
anybody else — 2 to 3 times a year. I
like action stuff.”

The days of a film laboratory presi-
dent are long. During his first five years,
Collette used to start at 7:30 a.m. and
end his day between 9-12 at night. Now
his day begins at 9 in the morning, but
he often doesn’t exit until 7-10 p.m.

“During the day I deal with internal
administration problems and speak to
filmmakers. Bellevue Pathé processes
and works on close to 50 million feet of
film a year and the cost of these opera-
tions is astronomical.

Collette also works as director of the
Association des Producteurs de Films du
Québec, as director of the Association
de Maisons de Service technique du
Québec and is a member of SMPTE (So-
ciety of Motion Picture and Television
Engineers).

“After Expo at the age of 43, [hada
heart attack and my doctors told me
that I should go into an easy-type busi-
ness for the rest of my life. Let me tell
you, film hasn’t been the easiest busi-
ness — but unfortunately I love it. I love
my work, I love the people.”

Lois Siegel

maruska

Stankova

a creative
curiosity

Maruska Stankova is an _ actress
who doesn’t like to limit herself. “I
can not stay in one place. I love to
travel. Before I came to Canada I
acted in about 12 countries, and in
about 8 different languages. This is

such a pleasure... because all the time
it is something new, something un-
expected and you are enriching your-
self enormously.”

Maruska has enriched herself by
guest-starring (with a Greek accent)
on King of Kensington, playing Mata
Hari in the Witness to Yesterday series
and Eva Clarisse in the French soap
opera Les Bergers. Before coming to
Canada she enriched the stage by per-
forming in Laterna Magika the famous

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INTRODUCING...

Maruska Stankova’s face changes from role to role

Czech ensemble that combines a live
actor and his film image. In her native
Czechoslavakia, Maruska worked with
directors Ivan Passer, Jan Kadar and
Milos Forman. In 1975, the actress’
3000th stage performance was cele-
brated in Canada, where she has per-
formed on both the French an English
stage.

Maruska branched out into films in
1973, acting as a go-go dancer turned
farm wife in Et Du Fils directed by
Raymond Garceau. Later, Maruska read
the script of John Howe’s Strangers
at the Door. “I knew it was absolutely
perfect for me, but nobody would
give it to me because the character is
very plain, véry peasant. Nobody

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could imagine that I would be able
to play it. People when they see me and
don’t know me they think I am this

urban lady, glamorous. Before the
audition they were not sure...,” but
Maruska got the part.

Maruska had a similar experience
when auditioning for a part in Quin-
tet, Robert Altman’s latest film, shot
on the site of Montreal’s Expo. “When
I played Jaspera in Quintet — she’s
a woman at the end of her resources —
Robert Altman saw me, he looked at
me and said ‘My God — I do not know
you simply don’t look like that’. I said,
‘Well, it depends on the role which I
am playing, I simply do things according
to the meaning of the role.’ He said

‘O.K.’ and invited me for the screen
test to see how my face would look
with the make-up because he wanted
to make me much older. And when I
had the make-up on I looked at myself
and I really looked pitiful. Altman
came in and I said “I look so terrible’,
and he said ‘You look so beautiful’
and I got the role.”

Maruska found working with Altman
tremendously stimulating. “He creates
an atmosphere of freedom. He lets
you really think that you can do what
ever you want to and he lets you do
it if you go according to his intention.
But if you don’t, he gently puts you
back, so you do not feel he is cutting
off your creativity.

“T think on one side he really inspires
your creativity, how you bring your
character along. On the other side he
has a very strong image of what the
character does, what the character
will do, how the character develops
and what the character finally will
look like, what the character’s position
is in the film. He is very, very precise.”

When she is not busy filming, Ma-
ruska teaches acting in the Drama De-
velopment Program of the National
Film Board and at Concordia Univer-
sity in Montreal. Maruska re-shapes
her classes according to the people
she is working with: student or profes-
sional directors, actors or scriptwriters.
“I’m trying to teach them what an
actor needs to perform, that every
actor is different. I try to make my
students more aware, I try to point
out the sincerity of approach and ex-
pression of their feelings. First they
should try to find those feelings and
if they have those feelings, it shows
in their eyes. If the feelings are not
there, if they are trying to pretend
they have them, their eyes are com-
pletely blind. Some students when
they read a script for the first time
start to act already, someone they
do not know, so I ask them just to read
it flatly and first understand what is
going on. If you start falsely, if you
start doing things for an effect — it
is phony.”

Maruska’s plans for the future
include the major role in an as yet
untitled film shooting in Sweden this
summer. Maruska said with characteris-
tic enthusiasm, “If there was a film
anywhere in the world, I would go there
for the sheer curiousity, for the plea-
sure and for the excitement.”

Carole Zucker

George Bloomfield posing with Double Negative’s two stars Susan Clark and Michael Sarrazin

SPOT LIGHT...
ON by Robert Werthenner

george
bloomfield

The ever versatile George Bloomfield still
wants to learn more, experience more and ex-
pand his many talents. He talks with Bob Wert-
heimer about his committment to creating a
universal film industry.

photo: Rick Porter

ee ——

Cinema Canada: You entered projects
with the motive of working with cer-
tain artists. Kate Reid and Susan
Clark come to mind. Do you consider
yourself an ‘actor’s director’ or do
you derive more satisfaction from
technical filmmaking?

George Bloomfield: I’m going through

a phase now where I’m becoming more

and more fascinated with the tech-
nique of filmmaking. Yet, I think I
am an actor’s director, or so actors
feel. I love working with actors. That
was my beginning, I started as an ac-
tor, and I feel that is where it all ends
for an audience. If the audience is
looking at the technique, you haven’t
done anything. If they are looking at
people on that screen and getting

involved in their lives, then you have
really succeeded.

Directing is my love right now
because it gets me close to actors,
close to an aréa I really envy. My wife
is a painter, and I watch her hold a
brush, choose a color, splash it on a
canvas and work it around. Now, I
envy her, and she can’t understand that,
because she thinks that I’m earning

Cinema Canada/9

SPOT LIGHT...

more money than her. Yet, what she
is doing is putting her feelings right
there, directly onto a canvas. The colors
are there and the feelings are there.

For me, an actor is able to do that.
An actor through his voice, through
his body, through his whole means of
expression, is able to interpret a life, in-
terpret a soul, express it, and it comes
right out of him. I watch them, and
the really good ones seem to have it
oozing right out of their pores.

You’ve experienced T.V., film and
theatre. You’ve written and directed.
Which do you prefer and feel more
confident in?

Film. I’m starting to feel frustrated
by the confines of a television studio.
We did Double Negative entirely on
location, and that was a very exciting
experience because we were able to
use the city, explore the freedom of
the camera, and have the whole world
to shoot instead of the confines of a
set. I don’t think we ever chose a lo-
cation where you couldn’t see the out-
side. Everything had depth, and there
was layer and layer of life visible.

Your relationship with Susan Clark
goes back many years. You're both
planning moves to Los Angeles. Is
there a future collaboration in the
works?

That’s inevitable because we love
working together. We are from the
early stages of the industry in this
country, and have been trying to make
a film industry work, having gone
through all those pains and aches and
frustrations of trying to make some-
thing work and have not seen it happen.

So, we’ve worked with people who
are really good, and some who are not
experienced enough, and some of whom
are not very pleasant to work with.
We feel that if you find a group of
people to work with that you can
enjoy and love, and that can share the
creative process — because the work is
so hard — those are the people you
should stick with through life.

God knows, it is easy to be doing
something other than making films.
If they don’t give you pleasure in the
process of making them, it is about

Bob Wertheimer who received a B.A.
in Communication Studies at Loyola
in Montreal is presently working as a
freelance film technician in Toronto.

10/Cinema Canada

2

the toughest thing you can do. If you
enjoy the people, then it is beautiful
and stimulating. But if you work with
a bunch of people you do not like,
it has to be the ugliest experience you
can have. You are in a position to be
humiliated in so many ways with selfish
people who are on ego trips. They
do not give a damn about other human
beings and do not belong in this busi-
ness.

Double Negative is a mystery, Riel
a historical adventure, and Second
City all comedy. Which do you feel
more comfortable working in?

It is hard for me to say, because
for me the process is exactly the same.

Bloomfield taking a bead for the Double Negative shoot

:

photo: Rick Porter

The reason I do Second City is because
I have tremendous respect for the
talent involved in that show. The
fact that it is comedy, well, comedy
is drama with far more precise timing,
precise shooting, interpretation and un-
derstanding. Visual interpretation of
comedy is far more precise than drama.
If the camera isn’t in the right place it
is not funny.

’ | think directing is the ability to be
a great audience more than once to
the same material. If you can be a spon-
taneous audience to the same material,
over and over again, then you have the
main qualities of a good director.

Most of the actors I work with are
beyond needing instruction on how to

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act. They are in need of selection,
help to channel inventive outpourings
that are so extravagant, that one must
select those inventions from them that
help feed the material that you are
directing. That is the process. It is not
instruction or flaunting my ego or mak-
ing them do it my way, because if
they did it my way, at best they would
only be as good as me! And that would
hardly be satisfying, because if being
as good as me was what I was after, I
would probably have remained an actor.

Did you enjoy the making of Double
Negative ?

Well, I made the precise picture I
set out to make, that is no comment
on if it is a great picture. I don’t know.
Nobody knows. We all hope. I do feel
it is better than what we started out
with. And if it were not, it would not
have been just my failure, but every-
body’s. That is the excitement about
film. It has got to be better than any
one of us. Better than Jerome Simon,
better than George Bloomfield, bet-
ter than Susan or Tony, better than
any one of us. That is when you get it

all together, it is all of us. I enjoyed
René Verzier and his camera crew, and
the great production crew we had all
the way down the line. The best crew
I have ever had in this country...

A non-union crew?

Yes, a non-union crew, which is an
interesting observation. It is not because
the people in unions are not as good
as the Toronto non-union communi-
ty, I think it has to do with attitude.
I have worked with a lot of union
crews and as individuals, they are su-
perb, some of the best individuals in
this business. It is just that there is
something about their collective atti-
tude. That happens with every union.

Are you a member of the Directors
Guild of Canada or the Directors
Guild of America?

I am a member of DGA, and I’m
contesting my membership in DGC.
When I say contesting, it is because
I’ve been having battles with DGC
from the time I realized that they
were a rather useless organization. I
have gone to their meetings and always

a

SPOT LIGHT...

felt that it was like going to a bowling
club! I do not have time for that.

I’ve worked in this country as a
director a long time, and I have seen
a lot of my shows being repeated and
re-run. So, I sit back and see all the
creative people, the actors and the
writers all getting residuals for the
extra showing. Every other country
pays directors residuals, not this one!
Now, that is Directors Guild. If they
were going to establish themselves,
it seems to me that that should be
about the first thing they should ac-
complish. Otherwise, for me, it doesn’t
exist.

Don’t you feel that the organizers
and the Executive would beg to differ?

Listen, the members of the Execu-
tive are people I know very well. They
are the ones, as well as myself, that
want to do what I am talking about.
The reason they have not is because
of the membership. The membership
is made up of people trying to find a
job who are too afraid to upset any-
one by taking a joint stand. lt might
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12/Cinema Canada

photo Rick Porter

Bloomfield (third from right) oversees the Double Negative crew

a while, but they are too frightened.
They do not think they are good
enough, and that is a Canadian thing!
They do not think highly enough of
themselves to demand respect as ar-
tists. Right now I am talking about
the membership of the Directors Guild
a lot more respectfully than they think
about themselves! I’m saying that they
are good enough, and that they are
needed, and have the right to demand
that respect. We all want to earn a liv-
ing in this profession and that is what
I am talking about!

You have said you enjoy the freedom
and variety of working in Canada,
yet you plan on leaving for the U.S.
Is America still the Land Of Oppor-
tunity for you?

Yes, it is essential at this point. I
want to go there to learn more, ex-
perience more, share more, and I
want to be working with people who
are better than me, who have had more
experience than me. I have been around
this country for a long time, and I
figure I have seen and done just about
as much as anyone.

At this point, I can make a pretty
good living up here, so that is not the
motivating factor, just to expand my-
self. I have no illusions or hang-ups
about Hollywood... it is a place to
make movies.

With your leaving, do you have any
advice or suggestions to the governors
and producers in Canada?

I would open the doors to Ameri-
can producers and creative people.
I believe American co-productions have
positive aspects. It would bring to this
country what I am leaving to find.
And not just from the U.S., but from
everywhere in the world. We are all
too nationalistic. Here we are today,
excited about the Egypt/Israeli peace
pact, the separation of two nations
coming to an end, but we are ignoring
the true leaders in the world, and that
is the artists! We have to get together.
I am not interested in Canadian film...
I am interested in film.

What about the U.S. domination of
available Canadian investment, with
big budget ‘Sure Thing’ projects squeez-
ing out Canadian ones. Do you think
that is a possibility ?

No, I think it is bullshit. It is inse-
curity from lack of confidence and
know-how. A. very Canadian idea,
pure paranoia. The ones who are not
good enough will be affected, but
those who are won’t be stopped. We
have to move away from being ama-
teurs and try to be as good as the
best.

J POT LIGHT...

the annual

How does this apply to
feeding on the CBC that is shielded
by government funding. How would
you improve the CBC?

I have a long relationship with the
CBC. I’m talking family. It is special.
They gave me a hell of a lot. I would
hate to suggest any change that might
deny that same opportunity for some-
one else. I have a positive feeling about

the CBC.

They are sitting ducks for criticism,
as they have that government civil
servant lable. Yet, they have done
things that the private sector could
not take the time to do. A lot of people
have had bad experiences with the
CBC. But, if you are in the private
sector you say you have had a bad
time with John Doe or Adam Smith.
To say you had a bad experience with
the CBC has a different meaning. If
you attack a general government con-
cept you feel courageous. That is all
bullshit. The CBC overall provided me
with a great deal, they offered me the
opportunity to learn my craft.

What’s ahead for George Bloomfield?

Work in several different places.
Mobility. Thriving on receiving as well
as giving back. To open the U.S. and
Europe and experience. To perpetuate
my craft across borders, helping to
create a universal industry. The obses-
sion with the Canadian industry as
solely Canadian is absurd.

Cinema Canada/13

a shot at
the big time

Eager to produce films with entertaining and
international appeal, the same creative trium-
virate that gave us Three Card Monte is at it
again. This time producers Rob Iveson and
Richard Gabourie and director Les Kose aim
for the major leagues with their new film Title

Shot.

by Larry Moore

It’s a bitterly cold January morning, as a young man
walks anxiously toward the Toronto Trust and Deposit on
the corner of Dundas and Spadina Streets. He nervously
enters the bank and demands all the money from one of the
tellers. Over at police headquarters an alarm goes off and of-
ficers Black and Dunlop are dispatched to the scene. In the
ensuing chase the suspect is cornered in a lane behind city
hall. Dectective Blake tries to reason with him, but the kid
panics and turns to fire. Just then a matte box falls from
a camera overhead and narrowly grazes the performer. “Cut...
cut... let’s do that again.” Later the fake blood to be used on
the matching close-ups has frozen solid in its cup. “This di-
recting is not all it’s cracked up to be,” muses director Les
Rose.

Executive producer-actor Richard Gabourie discusses his role as Blake with director Les Rose

“Give me a good chase scene and a happy ending

and I’m in heaven”’
Les Rose

The picture is Title Shot, the latest from Regenthall Pro-
ductions. The film is produced by Rob Iveson, Richard
Gabouris and directed by Les Rose, the triumvirate that
gave us Three Card Monte last year. The next day on loca-
tion at a pinball arcade on Yonge Street, Les comments on
that first day of shooting. “It’s a lot like football,” he says
wearing his ever present football jersey, “You have to hit
someone to know that you are in the game. Now that our
hands are dirty everything seems a little less fragile.” Title
Shot, Les Rose’s second feature film as a director, is a story
about the heavyweight boxing championship of the world.
The idea for Title Shot came to Richard Gabouries, who
stars as Blake opposite Tony Curtis, and is also the film’s
executive producer, as he was watching the fights at home.

i a Maa

14/Cinema Canada

“I’ve always loved boxing and was sitting on the couch and
though I’d like to write something about a shot at the title.
It started as that simple idea. I’ve also always been fascinated
by the Kennedy assassinations,” so Title Shot has a unique
twist that adds an interesting element of suspense to the
plot.

The picture was made possible by a 1.4 million dollar bud-
get that came from private sources, the Royal Bank of Canada
and the Canadian Film Development Corp. Three Card Monte
has been made on a budget of $300,000, so it was quite a
step up for those concerned. A healthy chunk of that money
went to Tony Curtis for his role of Renzetti, a fight promoter
who uses his mafia connections and extensive computer net-
work to weight the betting on the championship. Richard Ga-
bourie bargained for over eight months with Curtis’ manager
Swifty Lazar before a contract was finally secured. For his
two and half week stint as Renzetti, Curtis received over
half the entire Three Card Monte budget. Both Les and the
producers seemed very happy with the results.

Although there were some minor communication problems
between the star and head office, the performance he turned
in was exceptional. When producer Rob Iveson was questioned
about dealing with the slightly temperamental star he simply
replied, “Look at the rushes. They speak for themselves.”
After all, Curtis has been in show business for thirty years

and has made over a hundred films in that time. He made his*

first picture when director Rose was only one year old. Les
said that “working with Tony was a valuable learning exper-
ience. It was a give and take situation. We developed a rapport
that took us through the whole picture. It was a fifty-fifty pro-
position.” He also stressed the importance of getting off to a
good start with a performer of Curtis’ calibre, “You have to
get off on the right foot; a fish stinks from the head. You have
to have the ability to make decisions. My margin of error is
80 percent correct, 10 percent correctable, 5 percent work-
able, 2 percent changeable and 3 percent no way. If I’m good
it’s because I know when to shut up. Tony is a lot like a fine
sports car. If you treat it well it will perform better than any-
thing in the field.”

Rob Iveson, who defines his job as “the person who can fire
the director,” has a tremendous amount of respect for Les.
“He’s a blue collar cowboy and the performances reflect the
character of the director.” Les himself says that he puts a lot
of his personality into his work. “I like to be unpredictable,
pull a punch here when you expect it there. If you don’t like
the picture, you probably wouldn’t like me. I’ve tried to do
something a little different with the pacing. The actions scenes
has been kep short and plentiful, while the character scenes are
longer and a bit drawn out. That way the action will keep you
interested, while you get to know the people in the story.
The plot of Title Shot is a little bit implausable, so I’ve made
the characters a lot more realistic to compensate. I think
that ninety percent of directing is casting. This director yelling
and screaming thing is bullshit. You typecast and then you tell
your actors when they are going off. You have to trust the ac-
tors’ instinct.”

Les was particularly happy with the performance of Robert
(Bo) Delbert, an actor from New York, who was chosen to

LL

Larry Moore is a free-lance actor, director and writer living in
Toronto.

play Rufus Taylor, the aging heavyweight champion. “Out of
the seventeen people that we auditioned in New York, Bo was
the one who came across most like a champion. When I saw his
rushes I was very happy. Anyone could make him look good in
the editing room, but I was concerned with whether or not he

- could act.” Delbert’s role wasn’t very easy either. He had to do

extensive boxing training in order to do the fight sequences
with his challenger, who was played by Damiano Pellegrino, a
trained Toronto boxer. After the fight was filmed Delbert was
left with a few healthy bruises — souvenirs from his stay in Ca-
nada. Less feels that this was the best cast he had ever had to
work with. Beisdes Tony Curtis and Robert Delbert, Canadi-
ans Allan Royal, Sean McCann, Richard Gabourie, Natsuko
Ohama, Tabby Johnson, Susan Hogan, Jack Duffy and Vince
Marino has principal roles.

Taylor ready to come out fighting

Title Shot was a new stage for Iveson, Gabourie and Rose.
Richard Gabourie says that he mickey-moused both pictures
and that Three Card Monte couldn’t be made today. Rob Ive-
son feels that dealing with the bank posed one of the most
interesting problems. The Royal Bank gambled on investing its
own money for the first time on a major motion picture. The
bank executives apparently didn’t understand the necessity to
be firm and speedy with their financial commitment. Conse-
quently there were a few tense moments when it became appar:
ent that the producers might lose Curtis because some of his
guarantee wasn’t available when it was needed. Iveson says
that new ground was being broken every day at the bank dur-
ing that time, until they finally released the money that was
needed. Mr. Curtis, much to everyone’s relief, arrived only a
few days later than scheduled.

The jump in budget ($300,000 to $1.4 million) allowed the
producers and director a little more latitude than they had had
on Three Card Monte. Besides being able to hire an interna-
tionally recognizable star, they were able to use a wider range
of locations, including the Kitchener Memorial Arena where

Cinema Canada/15

the championship bout was fought. In order to give the fight
a realistic flair, over two thousand extras were brought in to
see the action and fill the stands.

Les was also pleased with the kind and number of special
effects that the budget allowed him to incorporate. These in-
cluded the rolling and subsequent destruction of a police car
and numerous bullet hits and gunshot wounds that were ex-
cellently executed by special effect whiz, Martin Malivoire. It
wasn’t always simple. A number of times during the shoot,
scenes has to be carried in order to avoid costly overtime.
This, unfortunately, would break the flow of an action or a
scene. Once when Les was cautioned for using too many
blanks to get his opening and title sequences, he quipped “I
forgot. Just put one bullet in the gun. This is a Canadian
production.” The tight production schedule also presented its
problems to Director of Photography, Henry Fiks and camera-
man Fred Guthe. On numerous occasions they were forced
to make the best of a poor or newly chosen location on very
short notice. Shooting in the Canadian winter certainly has its
disadvantages, when it came to trying to match scenes. When
the picture changed from union to non-union status due to a
disagreement with IATSE, they lost half the crew that they
had been accustomed to working with. It all made for a ra-
ther tenuous beginning. However, you couldn’t tell by the
final product. Fred Guthe was so proficient with his hand
held camera work that he was nicknamed Freddy Cam. Some
of the camera work, particularly in a hockey sequence and
during the fight, is superb. One of the crew members com-
mented after the first screening that the rushes were the best
that he had ever seen. The comment wasn’t an empty one.

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16/Cinema Canada

Henri Fiks takes a light reading

Tony Curtis stars as Renzetti, a fight promoter

Each scene has some particular quirk that makes the charac-
ters extremely realistic and believable. Les likes to have his
people stumble, stutter, miss-pronounce, make mistakes or
not be able to express themselves at all. He is very quick to
change dialogue and would rather have a performer say
something that he is comfortable with. Consequently, much of
the script was reworked or tightened in the rehearsals prior
to each scene. This is one of the reasons why Rick Gabourie
enjoys working with Les and has had him direct both his pic-
tures. Part of the freedom comes from Rose’s early exper-
ience as a scriptwriter.

Les Rose co-wrote Paperback Hero with Barry Perason
and recently has completed the first draft of a new script The
Circumcision of Issac Littlefeather. Paperback Hero was where
Rob Iveson, who was the second assistant director, and Les
originally met. On Iveson’s recommendation. Les directed Ga-
bourie’s first project Three Card Monte. As a result, Gabourie
walked away from the Canadian Film Awards with the best
actor and achievement awards last year. Small wonder that
Richard appreciates Rose’s ability and style of directing.

Together, Gabourie, Iveson and Rose are creating new chap-

Rufus Taylor (Robert Bo Delbert) resting on the ropes

ters in Canadian film history. Title Shot is an important ven-
ture for all of them and represents their own individual shot at
the big time. None of them have a specific kind of picture they
want to work on, but all appear eager to progress and produce
good entertaining stories that have an international appeal. Les

likes the type of film where you can experience a wide emo- —

tional range and come out uplifted. The King of Hearts and
Small Change are two of his favourites. Rocky is also up there
somewhere close. He confesses to having a “motherlode of
cornyness” that is reflected in the personalities of the charac-
ters he puts on film. “Give me a good chase scene and a happy
ending,” he laughs, “and I’m in heaven.” Up until the comple-
tion of principal photography, editor Ron Lizman had been
responsible for cutting those performances into a cohesive
feature film. Recently though, Lizman left for another pro-
ject and was replaced by Ron Sanders. Rose wants to keep the
pace moving through the 140 scenes. “In Europe the pace is a
little slower, but here the television generation is used to an
image change every fifteen seconds. The cutting should reflect :
the phrenetic pace of our everyday life.” He jokingly admits
that “you want to have people in and out of the cinema, be-
fore they know that they have seen a bad picture.” He doesn’t
have to worry about that with Title Shot. Although only his
second feature, the wide variety of talent and expertise have
combined to make it a fine motion picture. All those involved,
are being pushed a little closer to the goals that they are all
striving for. Rose in particular seems a bit like a newborn
colt. The legs are a little shakey, but confidence is growing witl
every stride. That he has the potential to run with the best
of them is more than apparent. ;

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ie ee

Cinema Canada/17

julius kohanvi
a portrait

by Anthony Hall

photo: Rose Pelc

Julius Kohanyi looking at a new location for a shoot

ee a eae eee

Film survivor Julius Kohanyi fought for three
years to sell the idea for Summer’s Children.
Now that the film - a dramatization of an inces-
tuous love - is finished, he is taking it to the
marketplace at Cannes, confident that the first
reactions to private screening promise a warm
reception.

18/Cinema Canada

In the busy frenzy of last year’s feature film activity, a
quiet little crew working on a love story about a brother and
sister was hardly noticed. But even during this era of sexual
anarchy, a movie dealing with the ancient taboo of incest can-
not remain unnoticed for long. Now that it’s in the can, Sum-
mer’s Children is beginning to make waves. The attention is
coming not because the filmmakers have exploited the sen-
sationalism of their subject matter; rather they have approach-
ed their theme with integrity and sensitivity, producing a work
of art aimed not at the groin, but at the soul.

Due to the fine eye of cinematographer Joe Seckeresh, the
film has a European look with shades of California, although it
is set in contemporary Toronto. Jim Osborn’s script takes us
backwards and forwards in time, as we scour the city’s under-
world with male lead Thomas Hauff who is searching for his
suicidal sister. This role in insightfully handled by newcomer
Paully Jardine, who haunts the screen with the raw force of
her unusually androgynous magnetism.

Hanff and Jardin, stars of Summer’s Children

The director of Summer’s Children is Julius Kohanyi, a sur-
vivor of almost two decades of independent filmmaking in
Canada. For him the feature’s completion represents the hap-
py ending of a long hard struggle. To sell the idea, he says, “it
took three and an half years of incredible turndowns and in-
sults and mental rapes. Before I knew we were going to make

the picture I felt like a wasted old whore. Now I’m laughing |

all the way,” he continues, exclaiming: “The so-called ex-
perts who looked at the script and said it was nothing. Now
it’s so sweet to prove them wrong.”

Kohanyi’s elation is perhaps premature, but not without
foundation judging from the feedback he has received after
previewing Summer’s Children to a small group of film in-
siders. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation at once made a
substantial offer for the television rights, while Variety praised
the work (29 November, 1978), comparing it favourably to
Outrageous. Sid Adilman of the Toronto Star reserved simi-
- lar comments (23 November, 1978), hailing Summer’s Child-
ren as “the most unusual movie yet made in Canada.” “No-
body thought the film would get made,” says Linda Beath,
manager of New Cinema Enterprises, which will probably
handle Summer’s Children in Canada. “Now that its done,”
she continues, “everyone can see that Julius has pulled it
off against tremendous adds.”

Already Kohanyi’s achievement in Summer’s Children is
bringing him offers to direct other features. One of these
comes from producer Bill Marshall, the brains behind the Fes-
tival of Festivals. He calls Summer’s Children “the best calling
card” for a first-time feature director that he has ever seen.
This judgement is shared by Michael McCabe, the man at the

Anthony Hall is a teaching assistant working on his doctorate
in Canadian history at the University of Toronto.

Canadian Film Development Corporation who gave S' &
Children the go-ahead after his predecessors had t

down three times. “We certainly would like to be in

Julius’ next feature,” says McCabe.

What is really wowing the money men like Marshall and Mc-
Cabe is the production quality that Kohanyi has been able to
get on the screen with his limited budget. Summer’s Chilren
was made in 35mm for less than $200,000 with a shooting ra-
tio of five and a half to one. (Most feature filmmakers expose
about fifteen units of stock for every one that appears in the
final release.) To achieve such efficient production, Kohanyi
did his homework. For example, he painstakingly walked and
photographed every possible angle of his locations long before
his crew was assembled. But the depth of Kohanyi’s prepara-
tion for Summer’s Children goes far deeper than this. He has
devoted the best part of his thirty-nine years to a growing love
affair with film. “I would have liked to have had a wife and
children by now,” he says, “but I have never been able to find,
a woman who can overcome the jealousy created by my all-
consuming passions for my art.”

Kohanyi’s marrigae to film has not always been an easy
one. But then truly dynamic relationships never are. The bad
experiences have left some deep wounds in a vulnerable man
who has learned to fight back. Beneath his acquired street-
wise cynicism, beats the vital heart of an incurable romantic,
still in the clutches of his first crush. Kohanyi refuses to grow
up, and his films at their best reflect the wide-eyed openness
of the little boy in him.

Born the son of a hydro engineer in Kelowna, British Col-
umbia, Kohanyi was taken by his parents to their native Hun-

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Cinema Canada/19

gary shortly after he was born. They arrived just in time for
the Second World War, and it was not until 1947, when Jul-
jus was ten, that he and his sister could return to Canada. By
the time he was seventeen Kohanyi’s growing interest in film
took him to Hollywood, where he met Stanley Kramer while
taking evening film classes at the University of Southern Cali-
fornia. “If you want to make films, don’t complain about not
getting a job,” he was told by Kramer. “If you want to make
movies just get yourself a camera and do it.” Back in Toronto
several years later, Kohanyi became ready to follow Kramer’s ad-
vice. Working as an usher at the Uptown Theatre helped con-
vince him to take the plunge. He recalls: “When you witness a
film five times every day, and you learn every line, eventually
you say, ‘I would have done it differently.’ ”

Kohanyi bought his first used 16mm camera with $150
borrowed from a girl friend and proceeded to make Requiem
for a City Block in 1962. “This was so technically inept,”
he says, “that I would not allow it to be shown in public,”
Two years later he was ready to try again, and this time he
came up with a winner that is something of a classic. Herring
Belt is his intensely personal statement about the organic
wholeness of life in Toronto’s ethnically diverse Kensington
Market. Here we get a sense of Kohanyi, the displaced per-
son, harkening back to the more intimate way of life he had
left behind in Europe.

During these early years Kohanyi supported his film habit
by running his own tiny auto body shop. He was just barely
able to make ends meet. Says Kohanyi, “When every $20 you
spend on buying and developing a 100 ft. roll means that you
might have to miss your supper, you soon learn to correct any
technical mistakes which waste film.”

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ohanyi watches Henry Moore sculpt

By 1967 Kohanyi had mastered the basics of his craft. That:
year he directed two works, Teddy and Henry Moore, which
began to win an international reputation for him on the film
festival circuit. In Teddy the pattern was set for many of his
later works — including Summer’s Children — which deal with
they joys and frustrations of youth. He explains, “The boy in
my films is always confused, He doesn‘t know how to grow
up. Like me in my childhood, he can’t decide whether to re-
late to this or that culture. The alienation of Teddy towards
his parents is an example of this.”

Kohanyi has built the film around the trauma that Teddy
experiences when he rips his pants. As in most of his subse-
quent works, Kohanyi seeks his drama not on the physical
plane, but rather in the interior spaces of the emotional uni-
verse. “If I were dead my parents would be sorry,” says Teddy
as he passes through the bicycle wheel of life into his dream
world. In Games, made in 1975, there is a similar pilgrammage
into the aroused imagination of a young boy locked over night
in the Royal Ontario Museum. With I’m Alive, his 1976 docu-
mentary on autistic children, Kohanyi takes the viewer deeper
yet into the miracle of youthful perception.

Henry Moore, the other film made in 1967, reveals an add-
ed dimensions of Kohanyi’s talent. As he was to do later in a
picture called Rodin, the filmmaker uses his craft to penetrate
the meaning behind the work of a major artist. The structure
of the earlier picture revolves around Kohanyi’s engagingly
intimate interview with Moore. Interspersed throughout these
scenes are powerful cinematic forays around and through the
organic mass of the great man’s sculptures. In Kohany’s super-
lative study of space and form, Moore himself becomes a
sculptured shape seemingly carved on the celluloid by the deft
movements of cinematographer Nick Knowland.

Kohanyi claims that the singe-minded pursuit by Moore of
an artistic concept served as an inspiration for him to keep go-
ing through some of the darker days ahead. And the influence
did not stay there, for Moore’s concern with the abstract is
reflected in another aspect of Kohanyi’s work. This is most
readily apparent in Images, which he made with Eli Kassner in
1970. Kohanyi calls the film a “cosmic orgasm,” a phrase
heavy with the ambiance of the era during which it was con-
ceived. To make the picture, still photographs were taken
through a microscope of crystals being bombarded by acid.
There were set in motion on the animation board through a
variety of ingenious techniques. The effect produced is dis-
turbing, as throbbing twisting images assault the senses in a
pandemonium of red. The emulsion literally burns with the
pulsating passion of Kohanyi caressing his craft.

photo: Ron Watts

Paully Jardin, a raw androgynous energy

But Julius Kohanyi does not alwasy live in the ethereal
spaces of high art. When he needs release, he gets it through
cycling and tennis. In his work, responsibilities have come
with the success. He has been an executive member of the
Directors Guild of Canada and seved on the pre-selection jury
for the Festivals Office of the Secretary of State. More re-
cently, he acted as Chairman of the Canadian Film Awards,
but he gave up this position fearing that his work directing
features constituted a conflict of interests.

One of the most interesting appointments received by
Kohanyi was when he was chosen by ex-CBC drama chief
John Hirsch to be the producer of the show Sprockets. The
series, which ran from 1974 to 1976, was an all-too-rare

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Wayne Best as a young and alienated Bob

showcase for the works of Canada’s independent filmmakers.
As usual, Kohanyi took up the challenge with zest, turning
out 26 lively programs at the incredibly low price of $5,5000
each. He achieved this without sacrificing production quality,
and the impact of Sprockets was so strong that it often re-
ceived over 700 letters a day. At the end of his contract,
Kohanyi was able to return $43,000 of the originally alloca-
ted budget to the Corporation. “For me it was an ego trip,”
he says. “I wanted to show that outside filmmakers are so
good, that they can afford to give money back and still get
the job done well and on time.”

Kohanyi maintains that Sprockets was taken off the air,
because its low cost and high popularity were an embarrass-

Cinema Canada/21

ment in in-house CBC producers with their bloated budgets.
On the topic he becomes adamant, reserving kind words only
for the underfunded CBC officers in the Program Purchasing
Department who nurtured his career during the early years
by buying his shorts. States Kohanyi, “The CBC is not for all
the people. It is only for CBC people who care more about se-
curity and their homes in Rosedale than they do about making
good television. They’re a frightened, incestuous group.” His
solution , “Scrap the CBC as a production outfit. Keep them
only as broadcasters of work handed out to private people.

That way you'll have guarantees with contracts firmly limit-
ing budgets and production schedules.”

Kohanyi sees the problem at the CBC as part of a broader
Canadian malaise. He explains this diagnosis through a dis-
cussion of the distribution strategy for Summer’s Children:
“We plan to open at Cannes and then New York in front of
the best critics. I don’t want to open my picture here be-
cause in this country it will be kicked as being Canadian.
But if you bring a movie in after somebody else has approved
it, like they did with Outrageous, then Canadians will applaud.
Canadians approve what Americans approve. This comes from
insecurity, which in turn comes from the fact that we sold
off our timber and our oil and our real estate. The country is
like a giant orange being squeezed drier and drier by a small
group of hucksters. It’s fast becoming a temporary bus stop
for everyone.”

In conversation Julius Kohanyi speaks his mind with re-
freshing frankness. But in his films he employs a different,
more subtle mode of communication. Often it is the thing
left unsaid, or the action happening off screen, which most
forcefully arouses curiosity. Here lies Kohanyi’s secret, for he
understands that by being too explicit one limits imagination.
And he knows that it is in the interior world of the mind’s eye,
not the exterior one of the camera’s, where great movies are

22/Cinema Canada

an incestuous affair between brother (Tom Hanff) and sister (Paully Jardin)

$}]#M UOY :ojoyd

$1]B@M UOY :o,0Y4d

Don Franks, having a serious drink

really made. With Summer’s Children, Kohanyi hones his
sharp talent for stimulating an audience through innuendo and
indirect reference. The only hint of the physical presence of
the lovers’ parents, for instance, is the father’s cough at the
beginning of the film. By the end of the picture, however,
every viewer’s imagination has been induced to create mental
images of the strange parental pressures which underlie this
unorthodox bond between brother and sister.

Just as some dramatic relationships are better left unde-
fined, so it is with the nature of the forces which animate
Julius Kohanyi’s passion for his art. All we can say is that with
the successful completion of Summer’s Children, this tested
love affair could well be passing into a beautiful new phase.

from Leila Basen

Producer Robert Lantos and Assistant producer Leila Basen

The following are a series of memos to Robert
Lantos from his assistant, Leila Basen, during
the shooting of Agency, an RSL Films Pro-
duction directed by George Kaczender from
December 1, 1979 to February 5, 1979. The
names haven’t been changed. Basen was the
only innocent...

Cinema Canada/23

“Executive assistant to the producer, what does that
mean?”

“I don’t know but it sounds impressive.”

“Nobody leaves Toronto to go to Montreal.”

“Yeah, the traffic should be good once I’m past Osh-

99

awa.

After the standard CTV lunch in a medium-priced

downtown restaurant; after the presentation of the regu-
lation goodbye gift, a pewter mug with name and date en-
graved, a tribute to many early mornings and many unin-
teresting interviews from a producer who thought I was
making a big mistake; I got into my car and drove to
Montreal, to work in feature films for people I had met
only once, on a film that I knew nothing about.
On Canada AM, I learned there was a good answer to
every question; except for the question, “what will you
do in Montreal?”’. What will I do ? Nobody knows what I
do. They still don’t.

Dear Mr. Lantos,

In regards to your 8:00 a.m. squash game with Lee Ma-
jors; stop trying to get out of it, the exercise is good for
you, 8:00 a.m. is better than 7:00 a.m. and I am unable
to assist you in this area.

In addition to not playing squash, I also cannot take dic-
tation, I don’t touch-type or operate a telex machine
and I have no idea how to organize the filing system.
Regards,

Leila (the girl from Toronto)

Yes, I can drive a standard shift. No, I will not pick up
your jeep at the garage.

Dear Robert,

A xerox copy of the interview with Lee Majors from this
morning’s Gazette is on your desk. (Yes, I know how to
use a xerox machine.) I have underlined the part where
Lee is quoted as saying, “I don’t consider myself a great
actor.”

Before reading the article, keep in mind that old adage —
I don’t care what they say, as long as they spell my
name right.

They spelled his name right.

Leila Basen received a BFA in film from York in 1976
and worked as editor and sound recordist on Anguilla,
a documentary about the West Indies. In 1977 she sold
a script to King of Kensington. She has also worked as
production assistant at CFTO Nightbeat and then at

Canada AM where she was promoted to story editor
and then to writer. In December 1979 she became exe-
cutive assistant to producer Robert Lantos at RSL in
Montreal.

24/Cinema Canada

Regards,

Leila

The keys to your jeep are in your desk. I parked it on the
street.

Dear Robert,

Last night, during an episode of Mary Tyler Moore, I no-
ticed that Mary Richards brings Lou Grant coffee and
makes his phone calls and she is the associate producer
and he is the producer. Maybe all producers have prob-
lems dialing the phone. I was hoping you might have
missed that episode.

Regards,

Leila

The girls in the office called in sick. They’ve been throw-
ing up all morning. Possible flu or pregnancy epidemic.
An occupational hazard.

Dear Robert,

Received a frantic call from Murray Hill Limousines —
wanted to cancel our account. The reason given was
ridiculous. Check out this story. . . Lee Majors hijacked
the Rolls Royce assigned to pick up Robert Mitchum at
the airport. Majors alleviated the chauffeur of his duties
and drove Mitchum to a hotel in one of the seedier areas
of town

Not a bad story, it has all the elements. Maybe we could
use it in our next film.

Regards,

Leila

There were no phone calls and no mail, but everybody
around here still likes you.

Dear Robert,

Nothing special today.

— Bad snowstorm in Senneville — totalled a car on the
way to the location — let’s move to L.A. and avoid this
aggravation

— Valerie Perrine’s boyfriend arrived on set — looks like
a surfer from Central Casting

— Lee went to Schwartz’ for dinner last night — didn’t
like the service, the smoked meat or the fact that no-
body recognized him

— one of the actors spent three hours at the airport
waiting for someone to pick him up — guess they don’t
teach them how to take taxis at the National Theater
School.
Regards,

Leila

Rushes at Sonolab at 8:30. They still haven’t fixed the
projector and Lee is bringing the beer.

Dear Robert,

Re: conventions and practices for television

Called all the national networks and came up with the
following:

— you can use “damn” three times during the film but
not “god damn,” “oh my god,” “Jesus,” “Christ” or
“Jesus Christ.” (somebody should have told that to Cecil
B. DeMille)

— “shit” and “bullshit” are definitely out

— “bull” is okay in some contexts (if you are making a
western)

—“frigging” cannot replace “fucking” (hey baby, you
want to frig?)

— “hell” is okay (if you are Billy Graham) but “‘crap”’ is
questionable

I just spent an hour on the phone saying obscene things
to bureaucrats at NBC, CBS, CBC and CTV. A way of
combining business with pleasure for a girl who spent
three years in television.

Regards,

Leila

Sonolab is on strike. That could be funny if it was
happening to somebody else.

Dear Robert,

Saw a nice shirt at Holt’s today. Could replace the one
you lost playing poker with Lee last night.

Regards,

Leila

Having lunch at the Ritz with an American journalist.
If you need me I'll be in 915. (Nobody believes that
it’s only lunch)

Dear Robert,

Some lunch. The phone in the room never stopped ring-
ing. I felt like Faye Dunaway in Network. I must have
impressed the pants off of the journalist. (figuratively
speaking)

Called Noel about the re-write. He’s skiing in Vermont
and his room doesn’t have a phone. (He has the right
idea.) Called me back from a phone booth. Didn’t have a
pen so he carved the scene changes in a snowbank. (Let’s
hope it doesn’t snow.) Will call in with the new material.
Wanted to know where I’d be in the morning. Said that
the phone number I gave him sounds suspiciously like
the number at the Ritz. (I told him it was just a coin-
cidence.)

Regards,

Leila

Valerie swears that the syringes she wanted are for her
B-12 shots.

Dear Robert,

Called Lenny baby in L.A. (Sales department, Avco Em-
bassy, on leave from the mailroom) Gave me a 20 min-
ute pitch on the good job he is doing with “In Praise”’

in the States. “Cut the crap,” I told him, “just give me
the figures.” Says he loves the way I do business, wants
to know what sign I am and is locking forward to meet-
ing me. (No airplane ticket to L.A. was forthcoming.)
Lined up a screening for Tom Berenger. Spoke to the
guy from Avco in New York. (another mailroom grad-
uate) Says that “In Praise’ opens in New York this
weekend. Thinks you should fly me down. Told him,
don’t -hold your breath. Said he’ll see what he can do.
(No airplane ticket was forthcoming.)

For a girl who doesn’t know what she’s missing, I seem
to be missing a lot.

Do L.A. and New York really exist or are they just
area codes on a long distance phone call?

Regards, 3

Leila

Lee refuses to leave his dressing room until the reporter
from the National Enquirer leaves the set. (I think it’s
an excuse to finish watching the football game.) Any-
way, it’s in his contract.

Dear Robert,

Your mother called. Wanted to know how you were and
if the crew likes the cheese buns from her baker. In this
case, nepotism is forgivable.

Wendy is on her way with the per diem cheques. They
have to be signed and on set by 3:00. She told me to get
touch with you. I said it would be a pleasure.

Saw your guest list for the New Year’s Eve Party. I didn’t

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know it was an all girls party. Are you planning to
attend?

Wexler called — definitely will have his script to you by
tonight. (That line — “will have script by tonight” —
somehow I’ve heard that one before — better call the
company analyst —reoccuring dreams can be signifi-
cant.)

Regards,

Leila

(on loan from the real world)

Dear Robert,

This is the stuff that dreams are made of:

Moses Middlemarch called from New York, New York —
says you know him (doesn’t everybody) — says he’s a
big movie producer (isn’t everybody) — wants you to
call him.

Moses has a hot property — about religious cults — very
big now but will it pass the koolaid acid test in a year
from now — dying to do this film with you — two pub-
lishers are willing to kill for the rights to the novel from
the screenplay — and, as if that wasn’t enough, he’s got
a completion bond for half the money (whatever that
means) — sending up the script — can’t wait to hear
from you.

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Tommy Schnurmacher called — says he saw me last
night at dance. (Didn’t bother to tell him I stayed home
last night, illusions are hard to find.) Wants me to tell
him everything. I told him nothing.

Says that you tell him everything eventually. He knew
more than me. I need a briefing session. He’s got per-
suasion down to a fine art and I’m a complete pushover.
Regards,

your faithless assistant

Why does the gossip columnist from the Gazette know
more than I do about the company that I work for? It’s
enough to make a girl very insecure.

Dear Robert,

Clare Walker has an actress she says you’re going to love.
(I told her that might come later.) The actress will be in
town tomorrow and I have arranged a meeting. Her C.V.
was on your desk yerterday, but has since left for that
nether world known as our filing system, where things.
go, never to be heard from again.

Regards,

Leila

Lee says he loves my haircut. He ought to know. He’s
married to the most expensive haricut in America. Can’t
wait to tell my hairdresser.

Dear Robert,

Valerie partied all night and was sick all morning. Sent
flowers to her dressing room on your behalf. The card
read — “The Show Must Go On” Subtle. . .eh?

your accomplice,

Leila

TELEX TO TAHITI

RE: Problems in Paradise

A.V. called. Says T.L.J. wants too much money. Sug-
gest going with your second choice. Needs your O.K. to
proceed. Please telex immediately. (How do you say
Telex in Tahitian)

Can I hand deliver the next message?

Dear Robert,
AGENCY promo reel in the can, SUZANNE posters
ready, all ads in place and yacht in Cannes confirmed.

Very glamorous business, this business. . . and lots of
work.

Some of us get the glamour and some of us do the work.
With envy,

Leila

Don’t forget to take lots of pictures.
I'll be living vicariously until you return.

the lonliness of
the short subject
filmmaker |

Short subject filmmakers need persistence
and stamina, especially those like Bruce
Pittman who make few compromises. Mi-
chael Asti-Rose likens Pittman to a long-
distance runner on a winning streak. Last year,
he completed two half-hour dramas, Hailey’s

Gift and Magic Man.

by Michael Asti-Rose

photo: Brigette Nielsen

Magic Man begins with a child’s boredom

Cinema Canada/27

“I sit alone a lot,” says Bruce Pittman, 29. In his tweed cap and navy-blue
overcoat, sitting on a park bench in Toronto’s High Park, the joggers could well
be disdaining of his thoughtful repose. The long-distance runners, however they
might regard this post-war baby, now grown to full filmmaker-hood, are unlikely
to guess that Bruce Pittman’s marathon run for the big break is as rigorous and
as strenuous:as theirs.

Pittman is just as religious as jogging fanatics in his dedication to the long,
lonely pursuit of powerful short films that strive to be unflawed and usually
achieve that end, “A short film doesn’t have time to recover from a mistake.
You blow it once and you blow the film,” says Pittman, who looks unlikely as a
perfectionist with his stringy hair, his diffident manner and his steel-gray eyes
that might be those of dreamy Gibran or visionary William Blake. For firstly
Bruce Pittman is a poet: perhaps Etobicoke’s only poet.

He is certainly the only Canadian poet since the era when versifiers were com-
missioned to write poems to order, who is readily able to attract backers and in-
vestors who are not seeking a tax loss, but hoping for profits and a tax problem.
Pittman’s films sell. They find their way into schools and onto national televi-
tion, and they attract the sort of money that is not usually associated with Cana-
dion non-theatrical films.

The early films which Pittman shot, wrote and edited were products of a
spring-wound Bolex. Saturating the track with Vaughan William’s Fantasia On
A Theme By Thomas Tallis, the first classic was nine-minute Form, Beauty, Mo-
tion. Ostensibly a filler for television, it is evidently more than fill and has gone
on to sell over 40 prints. The film has a hard-edge, butterfly lighting that trans-
forms a pubescent girl gymnast into an apparition of Dali protoplasm, and slow-
motion that metamorphoses the mechanics of eurhythmics into cinematic ballet
more exquisite than Karen Kain could dance live. It innovates with jump cuts

and double-edits that begin where Eisenstein started, but leave off where mon-
tage and music are such close bedfellows that the dynamism zaps the viewer; he
or she becomes the filmmaker and the gymnast.

But a filmmaker who is prepared to take risks in his exploration of the med-
ium is bound to fail from time to time: Fable of The Body is the Pittman film
that represents the first experimental animal that did not survive vivesection. An

Michael Asti-Rose is a filmmaker, writer, publisher and lecturer whose comedy
Silent Movie received the Etrog Special Jury Award in 1975. At present he is
completing editing of The Voyage of the Nylund which was shot during a year-
long voyage on a 54’ schooner in the vicinity of England and France.

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pittman
on film

On the Rules of Filmmaking

“After ‘don’t bore,’ my second rule is
to follow the Oxford Dictionary defini-
tion of the word simplicity. What’s the
story? Do it simply. At every phase of
production, do it simply.”

On the Subtleties of Filmmaking
“It’s like the guy who has a blind date —
and it turns out that the girl he’s taking
out for the evening is blind. And he
starts looking up her dress, until he real-
ises that her ‘blindness’ is only an act.”

On Holding Your Audience

‘T like what Lean said, ‘My aim with
Lawrence was that they ll never get that
first cigarette lighted in three-and-a-half
hours.”

On the Best Kind of Film
‘If you get a really good film that’s
funny, it’s the best kind of film.”

On Editing Your Own Films

“It’s the best part of doing the film. I’ve
often heard the argument that you're
too close to it. The only people who can
make a feeling film are close to it. And I
can be pretty ruthless with my own
work.”

On Films That Hurt

“Tf you're having problems, make sure
they're problems with what the film’s
all about. But, ultimately, if you don’t
have fun making the film, I don’t think
there’s much point in making it.”

cinema

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photo: Brigette Nielsen

Uncle Ambrose’s slight of hand

attempt to evoke the dualism of the cat as both demon and domestic angel pres-
ence, this mis-judged homage to Bosch and Doré etchings, comes across like a sel-
ection of cat-food commercials interspliced with Kenneth Clark outtakes from
Civilization.

“The film doesn’t work.” says Pittman, who is honest enough to recognize
failure, “but it has its moments.”

Exploring the medium futher, Pittman took the theme of the solitary indivi-
dual in the world of athletics, making an improbably Kierkegaard of an Argo
football player up again in another existential film poem, this time shot at Tor-
onto’s Canadian National Exhibition during an exhibition game. In Line of
Scrimmage (1974) once again Vaughan Williams’ Tallis Fantasia provides the
musical basis: the slow-motion movements of hulking jock-strappers recalls simu-
lations of dinosaurs mating in Hollywood B-films of the 1960’s, but the
stretched frame-cross of cheerleaders and a uniformed band evokes shades of re-
ligious extravaganzas as does the musical peak-out at touch-down. “Man Alone,”
however, remains the message of the first frame and the Iast where the shoulder-
padded pyrotechnicist of ball-play huddled like Rodin’s Thinker, a muscular
existential question brewing.

“Tam, ” and “I am who?” are the alternating frame and frame-line of Bruce
Pittman’s filmography. And in two sensitive half-hour drama completed in the
last year, Hailey’s Gift and Magic Man, Pittman has revealed that hs is more than
a virtuoso practitioner of the swm laudem student film.

Moving slowly into work with actors, walking when you sense he could really
run, Pittman’s lucent grey eyes give the secret away before you see a frame of
his dramas. He has an uncanny ability to discover and select actors, direct them
and choose locations suited to a wide dynamic range. In fact Hailey’s Gift was a
story that mushroomed out of the discovery of a small town dominated by a
huge swing-bridge and a large fairgound. Its rotting Upper Canada mansions
made ideal material for intimations of a haunting, and by the time he was famil-
iar with this place, Pittman’s film had virtually written itself. Kate Parr at nine
produces the definitive interpretation of a woman-child who gets to the heart of
a man, in this case a tramp entrepreneur, Hailey McMoon, played sensitively by
Barry Morse. McMoon is the town’s legendary carnival operator as well as the ec-

On Film’s Kinship to Literature

“T think film has a lot more to do with
music and dance than it has with liter-
ature.”’

On Being an Auteur Filmmaker

“IT have become an auteur director out
of protection. Nobody’s going to hand
me the films I want to make. I have to
generate them.”

On Parents

“The conversation always evaporates
quickly when we get onto my career.
But they always let me blunder into
things and make mistakes, ‘Give it a
try,’ they always said, which is the
biggest gift parents can give to a child,
the go-ahead to risk something.”’

On the Rush to Direct Features
“Kubrick made three films before Paths
of Glory. It’s a little known fact because
Kubrick’s bought up ail the prints. I
make a point of seeing the great direc-
tor’s first films. And even those are a
cautionary no to anyone in a rush to
direct features.”

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Cinema Canada/29

centric dragon sitting on a horde of Victorian collectibles that turn out to be as
much a part of the collective unconscious of a small Ontario town as the carni-
val itself.

Pittman’s sentimental and enigmatic answer to the girl’s question “Who am
12” is articulated when the freckled Jenny, in her plaits and awkwardness, makes
a gift to Hailey B. McMoon of a small Victorian amulet on which a Jenny wren is
painted. The amulet is her treasure and the wren is her private totem. As she
turns her smouldering eyes away from McMoon and the camera, Pittman reveals
his master-stroke, which is to have Hailey pull a small Victorian amulet box out
of his pocket. Inside the tiny box, the velvet form is contoured in the exact
shape of the wren amulet. As he closes the led, hands trembling with emotion,
we see that on the lid is enamelled — a wren.

This symbol of reciprocity between the generations baffles adult viewers, says
Pittman. “Though an 8-year-old in a creative writing class who saw the film ex-
plained the riddle this way: ‘Hailey gave the wren pendent to Jenny’s grandmo-
ther, and he returns every generation to take it back. Then he gives it away
again.’ I was staggered to hear this come from a kid when adults had repeatedly
siad, ‘I don’t get it,’ ” says Pittman, who values children as arbiters of taste only
second to himself. “One of my three rules of filmmaking is, ‘I’m making this
film only to please myself.’ I’ve asked Altman, I’ve asked Peckinpah. They say
pretty much the same. There’s a danger in playing too hard to the market and
ending up with a film that pleases no one, least of all yourself.”

But this does not constitute license for indulgent films when you take the
“I-clause” along with Pittman’s two other rules:

Never bore, and keep it simple.

Some would say that Pittman’s latest film, Magic Man, is not simple. The half-
hour drama premiéred in January at a Toronto reception studded with moneyed
guests who were lavishly courted with plate after plate of sandwiches and a per-
petually replenished punch bowl that could easily hold all the film cans of Pitt-
man’s entire oeuvre.

In fact boredom is the starting point of Magic Man. Nicholas, Magic Man’s
child star, is a bored first grader who wants to be like Uncle Ambrose, who is
an amateur magician and as sentimental at heart as Pittman himslf. The film
goes all the way out into space and back to show that Nicholas’ daydreams of
being an astronaut, like Uncle Ambrose’s sleight of hand, will take perseverance
and hard work. A simple notion to build a film around, but in Pittman’s hands
the realisation verges on the baroque. Nevertheless, the film works: for Pittman’s
simplicity rule has been applied religiously to the tempo, the framing, the light-
ing and the consistent earth colors of the film’s design. We forgive the comatose
Copland that waxes orgasmic and threatens to swamp us in emotion. The narra-
tive thread, however tenuous, does hold us, because we are convinced that some-
one who can handle the medium with such a strong sense of inner structure
won’t let us down. Magic Man ends with a bang, and no whimper. It works —
though one is not quite sure why.

Pittman is serious about the look of his films. He works with the same cam-
eraman, Mark Irwin, whever possible and sketches out complete visual scenarios
with as much dedication as a Sefferelli. The decisive camera movements, the in-
spired cuts and the ease of the transitions owe a heavy debt to the readiness to
compose the moving picture as carefully as one does the film score.

The only artistic compromise that Pittman seems ready to make is to the ty-
ranny of marketing factors. He reckons that a film of his has succeeded when
print sales to the educational market reach 100 sold in Canada and 650 in the
U.S.A. and elsewhere. And that means a film can’t exceed 18 minutes. “Schools
won’t even screen a film that runs four minutes over that,” says Pittman. And he
was forced to lop eleven minutes off Hailey’s Gift for the analogous market de-
mand of T.V. time slots, with their rigid segmenting of viewer consciousness.

But Bruce Pittman is not the sort to be discouraged easily by the tyranny of
the market. He is a long distance filmmaker, obstacles notwithstanding. Though
in lugging films around to screenings in a hessian bag he may occasionally moan,
“The problem with film is it’s too heavy,” if Pittman can keep his light touch as
a director with that wieghty sense of substance in his work, success will prob-
ably allow him someone else to cart around the ten-reelers when that day arrives.

30/Cinema Canada

Bruce Pittman, Etobicoke’s only poet

On Actors

“They are strange and wonderful peo-
ple. 90 percent of a movie is made in
the casting. My only acting experience
was playing a corpse: that I did well.”

On Auditioning Actors

“Are we going to get along? When we
look eyeball to eyeball and talk, I make
the decision. I trust my instincts on that
as we talk and talk. I don’t use auditions
and set pieces: I think they're unfair.”

On Children

“IT don’t ever remember thinking of my-
self asa child. I thought of myself as a
person. So I made that film Magic Man
forme. I knowI'm still that kid.”

On Tax Clauses for Backers

‘7 never sell a film as a tax loss. I go in-
to it because I believe it will be a suc-
cess. And I sell it to backers as a poten-
tial tax problem.”

TEd4d NEWS

FLYING SPOT SCANNERS
FILM POST-PRODUCTION ON VIDEOTAPE 3

In England and Europe, as well
as some other parts of the world, the
television system operates at 25 frames
(50 fields) per second, instead of 30
frames (60 fields) as in North America.
The use of this lower frame rate greatly
simplifies the scanning of motion
picture film. Existing films shot at the
standard rate of 24 frames/sec. can be
speeded up slightly in the telecine
transport to match the television
scanning frequency, while films being
made specially for television can be
shot at 25 frames/sec. and then played
back in telecine at the same rate.

The ability to reproduce films in
the television system without the need
for frame rate conversion enabled
equipment manufacturers in England
and Europe to take an entirely dif-
ferent approach in designing telecines,
as compared with the North American
practice. The outcome was the de-
velopment of what is known as the
flying spot scanner.

Cathode Ray Tube as Light Source

In the flying spot scanner a cathode
ray tube (CRT) is used as the light
source, instead of a tungsten lamp as
in motion picture projectors. The ca-
thode ray tube is similar in most re-
spects to a small television picture
tube, in that an electron beam is driven
back and forth inside the tube, exciting
a phosphor layer coated on the inner
surface of the flat face plate, and pro-
ducing a uniformly illuminated raster.
A lens focuses the rapidly moving spot
of light on the tube face at the plane
of the film in the gate of the film
transport mechanism. The light passing
through the film is collected in an opti-
cal system which makes the red, green
and blue separation, and then directs
these three light beams into photo-
multiplier tubes where the video sig-
nals are generated.

If the eye could act quickly enough
it would see a tiny, rapidly moving
spot of light sweeping back and forth
across the face of the CRT, but as
the entire frame scan takes place in one
twenty-fifth of a second, the eye sees
what appears to be a uniformly illu-
minated rectangle. Since the television
system must react very quickly in

order to trace out picture information,
the system “sees” the rapidly moving
spot of light. When film is being held
stationary in the gate of the telecine,
a picture frame is actually scanned by
the spot of light from side to side and
top to bottom.

From this brief description it should
be easy to see that the color and in-
tensity of the spot of light will be mo-
dified (modulated) by the film image
as it passes through the film. Then,
in the following optical system, after
color separation has taken place, the
output signal/levels from the three
photomultiplier tubes will rise and
fall in relation to the intensity of the
light modulations.

Two Television Fields from
Each Film Frame.

This method of reproducing film
in the television system is basically
much simpler than the North American

practice of projecting films into a.

television camera. But in practice it
is not possible just to scan the film
frames one by one, because the tele-
cine output must be in the form of two
interlaced fields for each film frame.
Rank Cintel in England has been making
flying spot scanners for many years,
utilizing a continuous film transport
and a twin-lens optical system in which
the scanning for two consecutive fields
on the face of the CRT is imaged on
the film at two different positions in
its travel. The continuous motion of
the film contributes about half of the
required height of vertical scanning,
and a rotating shutter allows light to
pass through alternate optical paths.
This most ingenious system has been
utilized most successfully by broad-
casters in England and Europe, giving
excellent picture quality.

The flying spot scanner has a num-
ber of important advantages. First and
foremost, color separation takes place
after the film images have been scanned,
thus eliminating altogether any possi-
bility of color misregistration and the
annoying color fringes sometimes seen
in pictures from _ vidicon telecines.
The pictures from film obtained in
flying spot scanners wére for a long
time so much better than the pictures

by Rodger J. Ross

from live television cameras that an
entirely different approach to film re-
production was taken in _ television
centres operating on the 25-frame
scanning standard. For the most part,
manual operation of telecines has been
the normal practice, although in recent
years some European broadcasters have
gone over to automatic signal level
control to save operating costs and
some have been installing camera-
type telecines to take advantage of the
greater programming flexibility and
lower equipment costs that multiplex-
ed telecine chains offer.

The Flying Spot Scanner in the
United States and Canada

Many attempts. have been made
by equipment manufacturers to adapt
the flying spot scanner principle for
use by television stations operating at
30 frames/sec. but without noticeable
success. North American broadcasters
have become so much attached to the
camera-type telecine, valuing especially
its versatility and flexibility and its
ease of operation with automatic
signal level control, that. any other
system for reproducing film had little
chance of adoption. Those who saw
in the flying spot scanner the possi-
bility of producing much better tele-
vision pictures from film were con-
fronted with the additional handicap
of frame rate conversion — it turned
out to be very difficult to devise a prac-
tical system for obtaining 60 interlaced
television fields per second from film
running at 24 frames/sec. Rank Cintel
adopted a method in their flying spot
scanner known as “jump scan”. With
this method the scanned portion of
the raster on the CRT was shifted
electronically into five different posi-
tions for every two film frames, to
obtain the necessary five television
fields, or 2 1/2 fields per film frame,
But it was ver difficult to entirely sup-
press the 12-cycle flicker that resulted
from slight differences in the brightness
of the raster in the different positions
on the face of the CRT.

Digiscan System of

Frame Rate Conversion
All of these problems have been

Cinema Canada/31

TECd NEWS

eliminated by the development recently
of Rank Cintel’s Digiscan system of
frame rate conversion. This develop-
ment has made the flying spot scanner
very attractive for North American
service, and a considerable number of
post production companies have already
installed or are planning to acquire this
new film reproducing equipment.

With the Digiscan system, scanning
takes place at the film frame rate —
24 frames/sec. — and the required
number of television lines are generated
to make up two complete television
fields for each film frame. The odd and
even television lines are “written”
into different computer memories or
stores. The odd lines are then read out
of the memory for the first television
field, while the even lines are read out
to produce the interlaced field. As the
Digiscan system stores the luminance
and chrominance information (bright-
ness and color) separately, two fields
of storage are needed for each, or
four altogether. The operation of the
system is completely automatic. The
system can also scan out still frames
when the film transport is stopped.

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Multi-Format Telecine Operation

The Rank Cintel Mk II flying spot
scanner is designed in such a way that
a change-over from 16mm to 35mm
film can be effected by simply inter-
changing the unit containing the film
gate and transport mechanism. This
is a big advantage in a post-production
operation where clients may bring in
either or both film formats to be trans-
ferred to videotape. To accommodate
the two film formats a camera type
telecine chain would have to include
a separate projector for each format to
give the same degree of flexibility.

The flying spot scanner was develop-
ed in a television environment where
manual adjustment of the video con-
trols was the normal method of opera-
tion, the objective being to obtain
the best possible television pictures
from film. This type of equipment is
fitted with a more comprehensive range
of controls as compared with camera-
type telecines commonly found in
North American television stations.
For example, controls are available
to alter the gammas of the three color
output signals. With this type of control
it is possible to completely change
the appearance of the television pictures
by raising or lowering the signal levels
from the picture middletones relative
to the highlights or shadows. Gamma
correction is particularly helpful in
reproducing films in which the images
in all three layers have not been exposed
in the same portion of their charac-
teristic curves, or when these relation-
ships have been disturbed by faulty
processing of the color film.

Post Production Operations
with TOPSY

Available also with the Rank Cintel
Mk III flying spot scanner is a device
known as “Topsy”. With this device
corrections of the telecine controls
made during previewing of a film can
be stored in a memory (floppy disc),
and recovered later on, automatically,
scene-by-scene, during the transfer of
the film to videotape. This enables
preparation of the transfers to tape to
be carried out in much the same way
as color film negatives are prepared
for printing in the motion picture la-
boratory. However, during a film pre-
view in telecine, the change in picture
appearance produced by a given shift
in the setting of a telecine video con-
trol can be seen as the change is being
made, by observing the television pic-
ture monitor display. If the desired

improvement in picture appearance is
not obtained with this particular setting
of the telecine control, the film can
be rewound and the scene can be run
through again with a different control
setting. Stopping, rewinding and re-
starting of the film transport can be
accomplished much more easily and
quickly and with far less risk of film
damage, aS compared with an inter-
mittent pull-down film projector.

Advantages and Disadvantages

From this brief and rather sketchy
description it can be seen that the
flying spot scanner is quite different
than the more familiar camera-type
telecine. The biggest difference is that
film projectors are not used — instead,
the film transport is an integral part
of the /scanning system, and the film
is moved continuously through the
gate where the images aré scanned by
a moving spot of light. A television
camera is not used in the flying spot
scanner — the light passing through
the film images is collected in photo-
multiplier tubes to generate the video
signals. These devices are basically
similar to the photocells used in generat-
ing sound in a film projector, except
that the output signals are amplified
many times within the tubes, as the
name suggests.

It would be misleading to leave the
impression that the flying spot scanner
is inherently superior to the vidicon
telecine insofar as the ability of these
devices to generate high quality pic-
tures from film. But anyone who has
had the task of lining up a vidicon
telecine would almost certainly agree
that a great deal of time, effort, skill
and determination is needed to achieve
a condition of film reproduction accept-
able to filmmakers. From what has
been seen so far it appears that such a
condition is easier to achieve in the
flying spot scanner operating with the
Digiscan system.

Long time Supervisor of Technical Film
Operations at the programming centre
of the CBC, Mr. Ross is the author of
two books, Television Film Engineering
and Color Film for Color Television, has
won the Agfa-Gevaert Gold Medal
awarded by the Society of Motion Pic-
ture and Television Engineers, and is
presently Chairman of the SMPTE

Board of Editors.

The Films of Don Shebib

by Piers Handling

Ottawa: The Canadian Film Institute,
1978, 148 pages, $5.95.

Richard Leiterman

by Alison Reid and P.M. Evanchuck
Ottawa: The Canadian Film Institute,
1978, 120 pages, $5.50.

A comprehensive guide by a seasoned
professional, David W. Samuelson’s Mo-
tion Picture Camera Techniques surveys
in sharply drawn detail the uses of film-
ing equipment. The field covered ranges
from TV commercials and documenta-
ries to animation and feature films, of-
fering effective advice on all work sit-
uations that a cameraman may face.
Film stock, correct exposure, process
photography and helicopter shoots are
a few of the specific areas considered
in this thorough and reliable manual
(Hastings House $8.95).

' Film historian Kevin Bownlow’s
The War, The West, and The Wilderness
celebrates pioneer filmmakers who tra-
veled all over the world to shoot fea-
tures, documentaries and newsreels in
authentic locations. Extensively re-
searched and abundantly illustrated, this
massive volume brings to life little
known facts of historic significance.
(Knopf $27.50).

Bosley Crowther, the distinquished
former critic whose New York Times’
reviews were marked with uncommon
perceptiveness and taste, presents in
Reruns: 50 Memorable Movies his
choice of 50 outstanding films of all
times. Each selection is thoroughly
appraised in its historic, artistic and
social context with brilliantly evocative
visual recall (Putnam $17.50/7.95).

Marking the half-century anniversary
of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences, Robert Osborne’s 50
Golden Years of Oscar is a splendid,
richly illustrated, large format compil-
ation of winners and nominees in all
categories, including notable acceptance
speeches and highlights of award cere-
monies (ESE, 509 N. Harbor Blvd.,
La Habra, CA 90361; $24.95/12.95).

Two volumes have been added to the

Academy Award winning George L.
George is a film director who does film
book reviews in Canada, France and the
U.S.

ISOOK<SIFELF

series, New York Times Film Reviews,
covering reviews of movies published in
1973-74 and 1975-76, updating this
comprehensive and indispensable source
of authoritative information on the pro-
gress of cinema as assessed by N.Y.
Times critics (Arno Press $60 ea.).

A perceptive film critic, Andrew Sar-
ris has assembled in Politics and Cinema
a striking selection of his weekly co-
umns from New York’s Village Voice.
His outspoken and often controversial
views of movies with political or social
content abound in shrewd observations

and stimulating pronouncements (Col- —

umbia U. Press $12.95).

The 1979 edition of Peter Cowie’s
International Film Guide provides pri-
marily an authoritative and thorough
perspective on theatrical movie produc-
tion in 55 countries. Additional sections
cover non-theatrical and sponsored
films, animation, video (by Diane Ja-
cobs) and other relevant areas (Barnes
$6.95). :

Digesting the mass of published ma-
terial about movies, William R. Meyer,
in The Film Buff’s Catalog, has judic-
iously compiled an extensive selection
of sources dealing with film books and
magazines, film appreciation of various
genres and national origins, famous
directors and many other relevant data
(Arlington $18.95).

An impressive study of the film in-
dustry’s notable non-conformists, Crea-
tive Differences: Profiles of Holly-
wood Dissidents by David Talbot and
Barabara Zheutlin, reports on the lives
and activities of progressives who work,
or have worked, in the Hollywood film
establishment. Writers Albert Maltz and
Lee Phillips, directors Abraham Polon-
sky and Michael Schultz, cameraman
Haskell Wexler, actress Jane Fonda and
many others who fought to maintain
the integrity of their social and artistic
views against often insurmountable odds
are included (South End Press, Box 68,
Astoria Sta., Boston, MA 02123;
$12/5.40).

Recent French Books

Published simultaneously in Paris and
Quebec under the editorship of Pierre
Véronneau, Les cinémas canadiens af-
ford a broad look at the multifaceted ac-
tivities, personalities, themes and tech-
niques of Canada’s national film indus-
try, growing in relation to (or in spite
of, according to the point of view) its
dominant American neighbor. This

by George L. George

dependence has dictated the historic
development of the Canadian industry,
except perhaps in the production of
government sponsoreg films. With this
reality in mind, it is heartening to
read the book’s essays on the contri-
bution of Canadian filmmakers’ cin-
ematic inventiveness, ingenious finan-
cing, awareness of history, and inter-
national recognition (Lherminier; F39
Cinémathéque Québécoise $9.55).

According to Maurice Drouzy’s Louis
Bunuel Architecte du Réve, dreams and
reality combine in his films to become
life itself. This synthesis requires extra-
ordinary mastery of cinematic concep-
tion and technique, which Drouzy
examines in the context of 8 of Bun-
uel’s films that particularly exemplify
the director’s surrealist approach to art
(Lherminier F64).

As an update to his classical Les
cinémas africains en 1972, Guy Henne-
belle has researched in Cinéastes d’ Afri-
que Noire (written with Catherine
Ruelle) the current trends in that conti-
nent’s slowly expanding film production.
Their interviews with outstanding Afri-
can filmmakers reflect technical prob-
lems, isolation from film production
elsewhere, difficulties with their own
governments, obstacles to exporting and
above all their confidence and dedica-
tion to often elusive pursuits (L’ Afrique
Littéraire et Artistique F30).

Masters of the Craft

Three notable additions to GK.
Hall’s Theatical Arts Series, Alain Res-
nais and Fritz Land, both by. John
Francis Kreidl, and Nicolas Roeg by
Neil Feineman: scholarly, informative
and insightful, these studies offer per-
ceptive analyses of their films, with
notes and references, bibliography, film-
ography and index. Each volume is pre-
faced by Warren French the series’ ed-
itor, with appropriate comments about
the director’s cinematic contribution
and artistic concerns ($9.95 ea.).

John Russell Taylor’s engrossing bio-
graphy, Hitch: The Life and Times of
Alfred Hitchcock, for which he had the
director’s full cooperation, focuses on
the man rather than his work. Hitch-
cock’s family life, his early years in
British films, his relationship with per-
formers and his work methods add up
to the portrait of a shy person whose
private emotions are expressed in his
movies (Pantheon $10).

Cinema Canada/33

BOOK REVIEWS

A Guide to Film and Television
Courses in Canada 1978-79/ Un
guide des cours de cinéma et de
télévision offerts au Canada 1978-
79

Edited and compiled by Marie-Claude
Hecquet and David McNicoll

Ottawa: The Canadian Film Institute,
1978, 167 pages, $6.95.

LE

Serving as a.reference tool for stu-
dents, Marie-Claude Hecquet’s and
David McNicoll’s A Guide to Film and
Television Courses in Canada 1978-79/
Un guide des cours de cinéma et de
télévision offerts au Canada 1978-79
achieves what it sets out to do by offer-
ing, in a direct and accessible manner,
information on film and_ television
courses from over seventy universities,
colleges and junior colleges.

The Guide is reasonably organized
with schools arranged alphabetically by
province. Such organization allows pro-
spective students to consider the geo-
graphic location of schools and their
proximity to film and media centres.
The format, with the provincial shields
used to introduce each geographic sec-
tion, is crisp and simple.

One of the problems of such a hand-
book is having to organize information
that differs from school to school, as
each department has a unique program
and set of course offerings. Any means
of standardizing this information, then,
makes for ease of both communication
and comparison, enabling the prospec-
_ tive student to better assess what the
different programs have to offer. Hec-
quet and McNicoll do this by introduc-

for

ing the majority of schools with a pre-
liminary paragraph or two that describes
the particular orientation of their cur-
riculum and also by indicating whether
they are degree, diploma or certificate
programs. This is followed, in most
cases, by a brief description of the
courses.

The main weakness of the Guide is
that it does not take this standardiza-
tion of information far enough; for ex-
ample, it does not indicate the number
of courses required for a specific degree.
Nor does it consistently point out the
exact courses of study that students
must follow to obtain their chosen de-
gree. There is also a need to better spec-
ify which courses are required, which
are electives and which are the necessary
prerequisites for entering advanced
courses. In certain instances, such as
with Ryerson Polytechnical Institute,
charts are well used as visual aides to
indicate the possible avenues of study
leading to the different degrees given by
the Institute. Statements of the objec-
tives for each year of study, as were
given by Algonquin College, are valuable
in explaining why students are expected
to take what appears to be, an over-
whelming number of courses (11)
during their first semester.

Although nothing was stated, one as-
sumes that course descriptions written
in French imply that French is the only
language to be used in these programs
and that descriptions written in English
mean that English is the only language
to be used. What is not taken into con-
sideration is that some schools, such as

Charlotte Hussey works in Montreal as
assistant to the editorat Cinema Canada.

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McGill University, allow Francophones
to write papers and take exams in
French. If this is the case with a speci-
fic school, then it should be indicated in
the Guide; it is an important consider-
ation for students planning to take up a

course of study that is not offered in
their mother tongue.

Finally, the addresses, phone num-
bers and names of program heads and
co-ordinators are readily available at the
beginning of each school’s description.
And it is this directness and accessibility
that, in the end, makes the Guide a
valuable reference tool, enabling the stu-
dent to assess the orientation and curri-
culum of each program and to ascertain
what degrees are offered. A Guide to
Film and Television Courses in Canada
1978-79 allows the student, from his
arm chair, as it were, to weed out unlike-
ly programs and go on to make the next
important step: contacting the depart-
ment of his choice to set up interviews
and make arrangements to see these
schools for himself.

Charlotte Hussey

Movies as Social Criticism
by L.C. Jarvie

225 pages, Metuchen, New Jersey:
Scarecrow Press, 1978, $11.95

In the last ten years, books about
film have increased tremendously in vol-
ume and popularity, but not necessarily
in scholarship. The themes of said tomes
vary from biographic popularizations of
film stars and filmmakers, to dialectic
dissections of films and filmmakers.
Where to place Ian Jarvie and his new
book, Movies as Social Criticism? He’s
not a film theoretician, a semiologist, a
neo-auteurist, nor genre-easte. By pro-
fession, Jarvie is Professor of Philosophy
at York University; his book suggests he
is an informed film enthusiast, an intel-
lectual god-son of Siegfried Kracauer
(From Caligari to Hitler), a writer whose
view of film and the film-going experi-
ence is positive, romantic in a 1965
liberal sense, and sociological.

Jarvie is part of the intellectual pen-
dulum that swings between the study of
the content of films and their impact on
audiences and the aestheticians who
study the art, often independent of con-
tent. Jarvie is no Don Quixote; he is
part of a larger, ongoing academic exam-
ination studying the infrastructure of
film, the industry (Balio’s The American
Film Industry), the mass communica-
tions implications of the art (Jowett’s
Film, the Democratic Art), and the so-
ciology of popular culture (Gans’ Pop-
ular Culture and High Culture).

The focal point of these studies has,
in the past decade, been television, but
thanks to the work of Jarvie and his
spiritual colleagues, questions are again
being asked about the social-psycholog-
ical implications of film.

Jarvie focuses his attention on the
Hollywood film. He provides us with a
historical perspective to the socio-psy-
chological approach to film.

Are films good or evil? Are they pro-
paganda? What are their effect on child-
ren? His chapter “The Social Psychol-
ogy of Movies” provides an intelligent
and intelligible analysis of the literature
of the last fifty years. Jarvie is particu-
larly valuable in his separation of the
pro-censorship group of social psychol-
ogists from the pro-media people (“‘the
catharsis school’’), and, in turn, from
the blend of the two, i.e. Paul Lazarfield
and Elihu Katz, who, in their book, Per-
sonal Influence, feel that it is the opin-
ion leaders within peer groups, or so-
ciety, that are influential, rather than
the media.

As to Jarvie’s position, he seems to
lean toward the view that film is an im-
portant reflection of the society’s
psyche at any particular time. “For the
moment, then, America’s movies are
critically self-aware. It is an uncom-
fortable state, but one never ceases to
be surprised by America’s capacity to
experiment.” American film, accord-
ing to Harvie, is an ongoing self-explor-
ation and an integral part of the so-
ciety’s maturing process.

Jarvie is an admirer of American
film, and the book itself speaks to
American films and the society. But his
insights go beyond the forty-ninth par-
allel. When he comments on the courage
of the Hollywood film industry, he is
speaking of its diverse subject matter,
ranging from Our Daily Bread to The
Manchurian Candidate. The question
arises, what issues do we in Canada deal

with in our films? Are we leaders or
followers in the cultural articulation of
society’s goals and fears? _

Jarvie’s book has shortcomings, but
before I deal with them, I should like to
mention two other insights. Neither are
startling, but they do add to a current
understanding of the nature of the film
medium.

Firstly, Jarvie is one of the few writ-
ers on mass media who acknowledges
that the film industry has broken down
and evolved away from the studio sy-
stem and its product. The industry now
services, not one large mass, but numer-
ous and varied sub-cultures. And films
are made in 1979 to cater to a sub-cul-
ture. Does film remain a mass medium?
Or is it going the way of magazines,
where there are one to two mass circula-
tion titles, but the majority moves to-
ward more and more specialization?

Secondly, Jarvie differentiates film
from television by highlighting the
group experience in the film theatre, i.e.
the excitement of a shared experience,
as opposed to the fragmented and us-
ually more isolated television exper-\
ience. Other writers have suggested film-
viewing is different (Hugo Mauerhofer
and Siegfried Kracauer), but their em-
phasis has been more psychological.
They have dwelt on the escapist possi-
bilities of film, the dream-like quality,
the illusion of reality. Jarvie tries to ex-
plain or justify escapism as a positive
experience:

Might it not be that there is a human
need to fantasize in the same way
that there is a need to sleep, or a
need to dream; that coping with real-
ity can only go on if occasionally
there is a respite from it, a respite
where we imagine a world with other
problems, or no problems, and where
the childish fantasy or omnipotence
can prevail? What we do is then to
act out the problems of real life in an
unreal way. That they work out at all
may release tension, as dreams are
thought to do. More importantly, the
world of movies, unlike dreams, is
one where resolution comes no mat-
ter what we do. Thus we are able to
rehearse emotional and intellectual
reactions to something that happens
beyond our control. What happens in
movies has, however, a shape and
perhaps a meaning.

The book is not without its weak-
nesses. Jarvie spends a great deal of time

justifying his approach and the serious-
ness and importance of his examination
of film. He doesn’t have to. Although
the thrust of film study has been toward
a more subtle film aesthetic, no one in
this era would seriously question looking
at film from any perspective. Ian Jarvie
and Christian Metz can co-exist.

Jarvie is drawn to re-examine the li-
beral themes of post-world War II
film — racism, marital breakdown, anti-
authoritarianism. All these themes have
rational roots in the society, but they
have been dealt with fully by black
writers, or feminist writers, with a per-
spective that is less voyeuristic and more
interior. Consequently Jarvie’s insights
on these themes are distant and less re-
vealing.

Jarvie also mistakes commercial de-
cisions for content decisions in the pro-
duction of many American films. Otto
Preminger did not make Such Good
Friends or Anatomy of a Murder, for
that matter, for any other reason than
their commercial potential. Jarvie also
gives weight to commercial and artistic
failures, Marriage of a Young Stock-
broker, for example, a film that hardly
would have been seen by a fraction of
the people who saw Bob and Carol, Ted
and Alice.

Finally Jarvie seems to rely on the
“Middle-brow” film as his yardstick.
Frequently these films are revealing of
on-going social themes and concerns,
but more often it is the “art film,”
even within the Hollywood system, that
makes the myths concrete, reiterates
society’s archetypes and has a powerful
impact on the public imagination. These
artistic advances are not the same and
some recognition must be given those
films.

I understand that “art” and “elitism”
have become equally unpalatable terms
for the student of popular culture, but
surely without the artistic advances
film would be nothing more than tele-
vision on a larger screen.

Kenneth Dancyger

Kenneth Dancyger is a lecturer in film
at York University and has taught film
in the U.S. and Canada since 1968. His
film The Class of ‘75 won Best First
Film at the International Experimen-
tal Film Festival in Buffalo, and he has
since worked ona number of film pro-
jects as director, producer, production
manager and scriptwriter.

Cinema Canada/35

FILM REVIEWS

THE CANADIAN
CONNECTION:
THE LESSONS
OF HISTORY

d. Harry Rasky, sc. Harry Rasky, ph.
Kenneth Gregg, asst. ph. John Maxwell,
ed. Arla Saare, sd. Erik Hoppe, p. Harry
Rasky, p.c. Canadian Broadcasting Com-
pany (1978), col. 16mm, running time,
60 minutes, dist. Canadian Broadcasting
Company.

As in his award winning Homage to
Chagall, Harry Rasky turns his attention
to an important cultural influence of
the century in this, his latest interview-
profile. This time he faces a greater chal-
lenge in presenting his subject visually,
for the people he deals with here have
devoted their lives to ideas: in particu-
lar, to the study of mankind and the les-
sons that history teaches. They are Will
and Ariel Durant.

Born in Massachusetts in 1885 of
French Canadian parents, Will Durant
anticipated the Quiet Revolution by al-
most sixty years. Rebelling against his
conservative and Catholic heritage, he
became both an atheist and a radical. By
1914 he was a teacher at the Ferrer In-
stitute in New York, one of those immi-
grant and workingmen’s school-cum-soc-
ial-and political institutions that sprang
up before the First World War. There he
met a brilliant young Russian-born girl
named Chaya Appel, who married him
at the age of fourteen, and whom he
named Ariel after the sprite in The Tem-
pest.

Will Durant wrote a series of inex-
pensive (5 cents) booklets for the work-
ing people and immigrants for whom he
lectured on philosophy at the Labor
Temple. Out of these came his first ma-
jor work, The Story of Philosophy,
perhaps one of the first modern at-
tempts to explain this complex subject

36/Cinema Canada

Will and Ariel Durant — husband and wife collaborators on some of the

most widely read books ever published

for the layman. His interest in history
came naturally from his dissatisfaction
with philosophy’s inability to provide
him with the answers to his questions.
He became convinced that history’s re-
cord was of supreme importance to the
present and future of mankind. So he
began the travels and research that was
to lead to his monumental work, The
Story of Civilization. From the begin-
ning Ariel’s contributions were impor-
tant, first as Will’s primary researcher,
and then as his co-author. Though she
says little in the film, compared with
her husband, her sharp comments —
when she does make them — show how
well she has lived up to her name.

In dealing with two people whose
contributions are difficult to realize in
cinematic terms, Rasky falls back on the
tried and true methods of montage. Un-
like John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Age
of Uncertainty, the visuals do not de-
tract from the intellectual content.
Rasky is content to let the Durants’

eloquence speak for itself. Although
now rather frail in his 90’s, Will Dur-
ant’s mind remains as sharp as ever. The
clear and concise analyses that Rasky
draws from him, with some pointed
interjections from Ariel, show clearly
the breadth of their knowledge, and
also why their achievements have
been slighted by a somewhat jealous
academic community. The public has
not, however, slighted them. The Story
of Civilization is one of the great best
sellers, but unfortunately, it is not
likely to be extended into the nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries, as
Will Durant originally hoped. Since
the world will probably not see the
likes of the Durants again in the near
future, at least not in America (it is
ironic that they live in that least hu-
mane of American cities, Los Angeles),
Harry Rasky has performed another
signal service by capturing their hu-
manity on film.

J. Paul Costabile

COMING
AND GOING

d. David Cherniack, sc. asst. Kay Nagao,
ph. Vic Sarin, ed. Arla Saare, sd. Gerry
King, sd. ed. Paul Coombe, m. Patrick
Godfrey, exec. p. Nancy Archibald, p.
David Cherniack, p.c. Canadian Broad-
casting Company (1977), col. 16mm,
running time 58 minutes, dist. Cana-
dian Broadcasting Company.

One doesn’t expect to find much in
the way of moving, enlightening film on
television. The medium often lives down
to one’s expectations. David Cherniack’s
Coming and Going, which aired Febru-
ary 7 on CBC’s The Nature of Things, is
an exception.

Coming and Going is a sensitive treat-
ment of a serious problem, one that we
all will face; dying. Because we hide
from the process of dying and limit our
contact with death, when we are forced

to confront it, we approach death with -

a mixture of fear and disgust almost as

though it were contagious. This attitude

causes unnecessary grief and anguish to

those who are dying, as well as to those *

around them. Cherniack attempts to
shed some light on the process, to show
that dying is a natural phenomenon, and
that understanding can help people cope
with this difficult time of life.

This cinéma verité was shot in a ter-
minal care ward in St. Boniface Hospi-
tal, Winnipeg. It is one of a handful of
such wards in Canada, where every ef-
fort is made to ease the physical and
mental pain of dying. The crew —
Cherniack, cameraman Vic Sarin and
sound man Gerry King — spent a month
on the ward, as participants in this pro-
cess. Only the last two weeks were spent
shooting any footage. Their involvement
in the lives of the people on the ward is
obvious in the final film treatment of
the subject. They were more than ob-
servers. They were not grabbing a few
shots. They were recording some part
of the world in which they, and we, live.

There is a sense of our common hu-
manity which comes from this film. A
sense that what is happening on the
screen is part of all our lives, and that

at St. Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg

we will have to help each other get
through it. The only disturbing note is
that the helpers are almost all women,
but in our society, this comes as no sur-
prise.

JHORT FILM REVIEUL

Coming and Going is a film about
people. The images are images of peo-
ple, occasionally alone, but most often
in company. Images of hands, mouths,
faces and eyes, revealing emotions. It is
the faces of the dying that tell their
stories. They change, they wither, they
dry up. Even in a few days, Jack Pren-
dergast’s face becomes dry and shrunk-
en. When he finally dies, his face is
nothing more than a layer of translu-
cent parchment over bone.

Some may be offended by this. We
see Jack Prendergast die. He did not get
up when the take was finished. He was
not nameless. He was not alone. We
watch Jack Prendergast die. When his
wife leaned over, pressed her face to his
and said “I love you so,” I cried.

To get inside this situation is quite
an accomplishment for both Director
Cherniack and Cameraman Sarin. In or-
der to minimize the intrusion of the
camera crew, the film was shot almost
entirely in available light and radio mi-
crophones were used to record sound.
Arla Saare’s sensitive editing preserves
this mood.

But the quality of the film cannot be
attributed to mere technical innova-
tions. Coming and Going is an intimate
film. We are close to the people, their
hands and their faces. It is a film of peo-
ple helping and crying for each other at
a very difficult time of life. The images
of hands holding hands, hands clasping
shoulders, and the faces — pensive, cry-
ing, laughing — will live with me fora
long time.

Charles Lazer

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Cinema Canada/37

AHORT FILM REVIEWS

EXPLODING
THE MYTH

d.. Rick Maden, sc.Stan Shibinsky, Ste-
phen Dewar, Dennis Winchar, ph. Fritz
Spiess, Les George, Paul Van Derlinden,
Harold Ortonburger, ed. Richard Unruh,
sd. Richard Unruh, tech. advisor Henry
Botchford, m. Corlynn and Miles Ram-
say composed theme song, “Give Me a
Chance,” exec. p. Stan Shibinsky, p.
Harve Sherman, exec. prog. dir. Henry
Botchford, p.c. Bob Schulz Productions
Inc., col. 35mm, (year) 1978, running
time 28 minutes, 50 seconds.

There is a myth that anyone who is
different, whose looks and behaviour
deviate from ours, who belongs to any
group that cannot clearly be labeled as
us, immediately becomes them, and
loses title to status as a human being.

That myth is exploded with the force
of a missile, in Exploding the Myth, a
fine little film produced by Harve Sher-
man and directed by Rick Maden, both
of Bob Schulz Productions. Them in this
case are the mentally retarded, and in
making that statement, I myself have
phrased another myth: that retardation
is mental. It is not. Retardation is a
learning handicap. The damage is done
to the brain, a physical entity, not to
the mind. Retardation is not mental ill-
ness. |

Eight such myths in all are exploded
as the film exposes an issue society, for
the most part, would prefer to avoid.
The myths are that retarded people are 1)
dangerous 2) should always be segregat-
ed 3) that institutions are the best place
for them 4) that they should not mix
with normal children 5) that they will
always be deperident 6) that group
homes bring property values down 7)
that they are strictly limited in their
scope and 8) that only normal people
should have full rights. The beauty of
the film’s crafting lies in its confronta-
tion of each myth, and its direct annihi-
lation of that myth. This is the myth —
not true —this is the fact.

Perhaps the hardest thing for “nor-
mal” people to accept about retardation
is its direct assault on the idea of man as
intellectual animal. Our brain is our

38/Cinema Canada

proudest possession and the one thing
which holds us above all other animals.
Retarded people are an embarrassing re-
minder that this symbol of superiority is
in fact at the mercy of nature’s whims.
Any number of tiny flaws before deliv-
ery of a child and — wham — intelli-
gence is wiped out.

The film’s uniqueness is that it brings
retarded people actively into the pic-
ture. They are interviewed and offer
opinions on themselves and their social
conditions with astounding clarity and
insight. They are not viewed as distant
entities, and social workers and care-
takers don’t stand around shrugging
their shoulders and sighing, “What can
we do with them?” They participate
and offer suggestions, and they make
perfectly good sense. They are treated
as individuals with a handicap no differ-
ent than handicaps of any sort. They
take longer to learn, and they don’t
learn as much — that’s all that’s wrong
with them.

They have a lower IQ of course, but
within that IQ is the same range of abil-
ities, talents, hopes, dreams as anyone
with a higher IQ, and when they are en-
couraged for their abilities instead of
put down for their weaknesses, their
achievements are remarkable. For in-

Todd Smith, age 7, appears in Exploding The Myth

stance, the Famous People Players, a
Las Vegas professional puppet show, is
manned by retarded people. Also there
is the case of the Pocock Family of Tor-
onto and their daughter Teresa. The Po-
cocks were told that Teresa was so sev-
erely retarded she would never be able to
speak. They decided to keep her, work
with her, and now she is fluent in both
English and French and can read and
write legibly and articulately.

Bob Schulz Productions is mostly a
commercial advertising production
house, and some might say that there is
still much evidence of this in the film.
The final scene of teary-eyed, slow-mo-
tion running and jumping through
parks, while a theme is belted out in the
background, is a trite too cloying and
sentimental. Also, in many ways, the
film has a certain commercial flavour in
that its message is hammered home and
its points doubly underlined. But then
explosions. were never meant to be sub-
tle. And sometimes that is what is need-
ed to get through the caked-on layers of
human prejudice.

The film works. It awakens. Perhaps
the selling of awareness should be no
different than the selling of any pro-
duct.

Krystyna Hunt

NFB
Offers You a Lot!

National Film Board of Canada — 40 years of quality film
service to Canadians.

In Canada:

@ The NFB has produced more than 3,000 original films since 1939.

Over 450 different Canadian Producers and Directors have created our film collection.

The NFB operates 29 film libraries in Canada. NFB films are also available in some one

hundred affiliated film libraries across the country.

® Canadian audiences have access to 122,000 film prints in our cross-country Distribution
system.

e Our Distribution offices offer programming advice, information sheets for each film, and
catalogues.

e During our last fiscal year, a total of 492,000 film bookings have been fulfilled Canada.

Canadians have enjoyed 10,842 telecasts of NFB films and 13,958 screenings in theaters.

Outside Canada:

e NFB films can be acquired through our Distribution Offices in New York, London,
Paris and Sydney (Australia).

e NFB film collections are versioned in 44 different languages, and distributed through
90 Canadian embassies and diplomatic missions in 80 foreign countries.

e Internationally, the NFB maintains a collection of 84,000 film prints which are seen
annually by over 700 million viewers world-wide.

Awards

e In 1978/79, the NFB entered 75 international film festivals with 43 films
and won 93 awards.

e Since 1939, NFB films have received more than 1,600 awards, including 4 Oscars,
20 Academy nominations, 3 Palmes d’or, and 5 Robert Flaherty awards.

National Office wl L} fH]
Film Board national du film mi

of Canada du Canada | ID39: IG/9
Cinema Canada/39

Read

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CinegMag

CANADA'S FINEST FILM AND TELEVISION NEWSPAPER

In the recently published March issue (no. 15):

—Brokers predict double volume of film production in 1979

_Creation of the Association of Canadian Film Craftsmen is sign of new
times, new attitudes

—Film policy revisions in Quebec as minister of Communications consults
industry

—Susan Clark speaks out on Canada’s attitude toward the stars

—Distributors meet with the Canadian Film Development Corporation
about Canadian distribution rights

—Quebecois directors call for CFDC’s executives resignations; commercial
sectors come to CFDC’s defense

—Nelson Smith C.A. talks about leverage in film finance

Read all of this and more —box office grosses, organizational news, films in
release— each month in CinéMag. Write TODAY.

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